“Francisco Pinto Balsemão was a bastion of Portuguese democracy and a staunch defender of press freedom,” stated António Horta Osório in response to his passing, in a statement sent to the Lusa news agency.
“Portugal is poorer today,” concluded the manager, who about a year ago resigned from his position as director of Impresa to focus on his international activities.
The news of the death of the PSD’s number one member was announced by the Social Democratic president and Prime Minister Luís Montenegro during a meeting of the party’s national council in Lisbon.
Balsemão was an indispensable figure in the history of media in Portugal, a journalist who remained political, consistently advocating for freedom of expression and the right to inform.
Founder of the weekly newspaper Expresso during the dictatorship (1973), and SIC, Portugal’s first private television station, he passed away on Tuesday at 88, of natural causes.
In 1974, after the April 25 Revolution, he founded the Democratic Popular Party (PPD), later the Social Democratic Party (PSD), with Francisco Sá Carneiro and Magalhães Mota. He led two governments following Sá Carneiro’s death, between 1981 and 1983, and was, until now, a member of the Council of State, an advisory body to the President of the Republic.
