According to the Presidency of the Republic, the Book Festival attracted nearly 170,000 visitors across its eight editions, with the highest attendance recorded this year at nearly 27,000.
“I invested in reading, and it was a winning bet,” Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa told reporters in the gardens of the Belém Palace in Lisbon, on the final of the four-day event, which concluded with a concert by Xutos & Pontapés.
The head of state delivered a “very positive assessment” of this free-entry festival, which he launched in 2016, stating that “it was always on the rise” after a “two-year break” in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I championed the book, and what I truly enjoyed doing was being among the Portuguese, as they were with me,” he said, highlighting the meetings between writers and school students from across the country that he promoted over the past nine and a half years.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa noted that the Belém Palace will remain open to the public, regardless of who succeeds him after March 9 next year: “This will continue, without a doubt. That’s something that won’t go back.”
“The Portuguese people will choose their successor, and the successor will decide whether to continue this way, focus more on music, visual arts, theatre, or mix with books,” he predicted.
He promised, “If books continue to be available, I’ll be here to buy them, as I already do today; if there are other cultural activities, I’ll come as any citizen to participate.”
After taking several photos with visitors in the palace’s gardens, mostly with children, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa discussed the relationship the population had with the President of the Republic throughout his two terms: “I have no complaints, never did, even during the most challenging times.”
The head of state identified the COVID-19 pandemic as “the most challenging period” he faced and the 2017 wildfires as “the second most challenging.”
He noted that there were moments, “like dissolutions or certain warnings to governments,” when “people could have really cooled down towards the President of the Republic,” but it didn’t happen, despite “ups and downs.”
“I think people always distinguished very well two things: whether they agreed or disagreed with the President, whether they liked the person or not. That is to say, even when they disagreed with the President, they treated the person as someone they liked. And that’s the most important thing,” he argued.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa saw himself as a continuation of his predecessors, Ramalho Eanes, Mário Soares, Jorge Sampaio, and Cavaco Silva, in the “closeness between the President and the people,” maintaining that “all the presidents had this trait” and were well-received by the public.
“This happened with my predecessors. With me, I think it will happen—I’ll eventually disappear from politics completely—people will say: we agreed, disagreed, voted, didn’t vote, thought he made this mistake and so on, but he was a good person and did the best he could,” he stated.
When questioned if he will indeed step back from political life, the President of the Republic reiterated, “Yes, yes, I will disappear. I think that for me the practice in other countries where ex-presidents intervene a lot is not a good practice. That’s what I think, but anyhow.”
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa launched the Book Festival in his first year as head of state, in collaboration with the Portuguese Association of Publishers and Booksellers (APEL), an initiative that included book stalls, autograph sessions, debates, cinema, music, and activities for children.
