Luís Montenegro attended the funeral service of Francisco Pinto Balsemão today at Jerónimos Monastery in Lisbon and departed before the casket left the church to head to Brussels.
“Right now,” he responded when asked if he would still join the European Council, which began this morning.
Montenegro praised the funeral ceremony, describing it as “very beautiful, very intense, very emotional.”
“A good way to honor a unique, singular personality to whom the country owes a great debt of gratitude. It was worthy of the memory, the legacy, of the deep sense of recognition from the entire Portuguese people for the contributions Francisco Pinto Balsemão made to our democracy, our societal life, our freedom, and our future,” he said.
The president of the PSD also regarded the manner in which the funeral proceedings took place as a “toast to Portugal’s future.”
“By looking at the strength of these personalities, we find inspiration for what we must do and build,” he said.
Montenegro assured that “the PSD will always consider Francisco Pinto Balsemão its number one member.”
“We certainly feel a great sadness at his passing, as we also always felt the pride he had in being the number one member,” he stated.
When asked if he agreed with former PSD leader Manuela Ferreira Leite, who mentioned that the party lost a father, Montenegro expressed agreement.
“He is one of the PSD’s founding fathers,” he said.
Luís Montenegro had canceled all scheduled engagements until the end of Francisco Pinto Balsemão’s funeral ceremonies, which concluded around lunchtime.
During the mass, speeches were delivered not only by the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, but also by his son Francisco Pedro Balsemão, the current CEO of the Impresa group.
“He was our hero, above all because he lived an upright and dignified life (…) He will never be just a footnote in history,” he said.
Prior to that, Fado singer Camané performed the song “Abandono,” with a poem by David Mourão Ferreira, previously sung by Amália Rodrigues.
The casket left the church at 2:15 PM, amid applause from hundreds of attendees, carried by six cadets from the three branches of the Armed Forces (Army, Navy, and Air Force).
Immediately following were the family and the highest state officials, including the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, President of the Assembly of the Republic, José Pedro Aguiar-Branco, and former President of the Republic, Aníbal Cavaco Silva.
Due to Balsemão having served as Prime Minister, the funeral ceremonies received military honors. During the mass, an honor guard was also provided by Air Force members, as Balsemão was an officer in this branch.
After the mass, the procession continued with GNR motorcyclists to the Impresa group, with the funeral reserved for the family.
Former Prime Minister Francisco Pinto Balsemão, founder and number one member of the PSD, which he also chaired, passed away on Tuesday at the age of 88.
Francisco Pinto Balsemão chaired the media group Impresa, which includes Expresso, founded by him during the dictatorship in 1973, and SIC, Portugal’s first private television channel, launched in 1992.
In 1974, after the April 25 Revolution, he co-founded the Partido Popular Democrático (PPD), later the Partido Social Democrata (PSD), with Francisco Sá Carneiro and Magalhães Mota.
After Francisco Sá Carneiro’s death, Balsemão assumed the presidency of the PSD between 1980 and 1983 and led the VII and VIII constitutional governments of the AD coalition from 1981 to 1983.
He was a member of the Council of State, a political advisory body to the President of the Republic.
