In an extensive obituary, the Globo’s G1 website recalled Francisco Pinto Balsemão, explaining that the “businessman founded ‘Expresso’, a weekly newspaper that gained prominence during the country’s redemocratization in the 1970s, and also SIC, the first private TV in Portugal. He was in charge of the government between 1981 and 1983.”
Highlighting the two facets of the businessman and politician who died this Tuesday, aged 88, G1 tells the story of Balsemão’s entry into politics in 1969, his time as a deputy still in the Estado Novo, standing out “as part of the Liberal Wing, which called for reforms in the face of the regime’s hard line.”
Remember how after the 25th of April, Balsemão founded the PPD, current PSD and its role in the Constituent Assembly.
In addition to his time as head of government and his role as founder, first of the Express and later from SIC, in 1992, the first private television channel in Portugal, G1 recalls a seminar in Lisbon, in 2023, in which Balsemão paid tribute to journalist Roberto Marinho, founder of Grupo Globo. “My relationships with Brazil are strong and varied. One of them was created and cemented through Roberto Marinho. He was a remarkable man. He created, with his own resources, the Roberto Marinho Foundation, which even today seeks to contribute to finding solutions to problems that affect Brazilian society”, he said at the time, remembering that Globo was one of the first shareholders of SIC.