The ministers and secretaries of State who were part of Aníbal Cavaco Silva’s three governments will meet next Friday, at a celebratory lunch in Lisbon, which marks 40 years since his first inauguration.
“The objective and idea was to hold a get-together, reunion and celebration of the 40th anniversary of the reformist governments led by Professor Cavaco Silva, of which we are proud to have belonged precisely because of his reformist impetus, for his transformative impetus, which in fact was of extreme importance for our country”, explained former minister Fernando Faria de Oliveira to the Lusa agency.
Former Minister of Commerce and Tourism in Cavaco Silva’s third government, Faria de Oliveira is one of the organizers of this lunch, which will take place next Friday, in Lisbon.
Faria de Oliveira said that This is not a tribute, but a moment of reunion and “fraternization between all” the members of the governments led by Cavaco Silva.
“In some way, it is clear that this can also mean a message, which is that without reforms, without giving extreme importance to economic growth and without having a concern for a truly social-democratic experience, in which social coordination, equity in income taxation, equal opportunities, health protection, the market economy functioning with vigor, the ability to attract direct foreign investment, all these phenomena, the radical change of the country in terms of communications, in terms of land transport, bridges, other infrastructures, also communications, all of this, in fact, is of enormous importance for the development of the country and for people to have a better quality of life and better wages”, he highlighted.
And he highlighted that the 10 years in which Aníbal Cavaco Silva was prime minister, between 1985 and 1995, represented “the period in recent history in which the country had the most significant growth in all aspects, including cultural aspects”.
Still, he argued that the objective of this event “is not to take a message” abroad.
“It exists intrinsically when we come together, because we feel particularly satisfied that we all contributed to making this happen”, he indicated.
Faria de Oliveira indicated that close to a hundred people will be present, and “the bulk of the ministers and secretaries of State will be in full force at this celebration”, with the exception of “one or another case” who will not be present due to illness or “other types of impossibilities”.
“Unfortunately, 43 members of the government have already died, including ministers and secretaries of State. There were some people whose contact details we were unable to collect and, therefore, we were unable to let them know about this lunch, but we will have almost 100 people gathered to celebrate this government action, which brings us great satisfaction, because we think we serve Portugal very well”, he said.
Fernando Faria de Oliveira explained to Lusa that the idea for this meeting came up at another lunch.
“Since 1996, I have always had a regular lunch with people who were part of the governments when I was minister. And I was with Dr. Alexandre Relvas and Dr. Luís Palha at a lunch and exactly the importance of the meaning of this date emerged, and then Dr. Luís Palha was the one who suggested promoting a lunch among everyone, to make everyone miss each other, and that’s how the idea was born”, he said.
Faria de Oliveira said that “the most appropriate date would be November 6th” – the day on which exactly 40 years have passed since Aníbal Cavaco Silva was first inaugurated as Prime Minister – but “it was not possible to find a solution to hold this get-together on that day”.
Aníbal Cavaco Silva was prime minister for 10 years. Their governments included figures such as Luís Marques Mendes, Eduardo Catroga, Durão Barroso, Luís Mira Amaral, or Manuela Ferreira Leite.