Francisco Pinto Balsemão contributed significantly to the country during both dictatorship and democracy, in the press and politics, in opposition and government, as a journalist and entrepreneur, to both allies and adversaries,” reads a message written on Rui Tavares’s official account on social media platform ‘X’.
For the leader of Livre, “it is now a time for recognition from everyone.”
“To the family and friends, my sincere condolences,” he adds.
The former Prime Minister Francisco Pinto Balsemão, founder and member number one of the PSD, of which he was also president, passed away today at the age of 88.
During the dictatorship, in 1973, he established the weekly newspaper Expresso, and later, in democracy, founded SIC, the first private television channel in Portugal, in 1992.
After the death of Francisco Sá Carneiro, he led the PSD and headed the VII and VIII constitutional governments under AD, between 1981 and 1983.
