“It is a very difficult day for all of us. We believed it wouldn’t come because we started to think that Francisco Pinto Balsemão – father, husband, grandfather, journalist, entrepreneur – was eternal. As many will remember, the phrases about the future were started by Impresa’s founder with the expression ‘If I ever die…’. But his legacy is eternal. And his legacy is all of us,” said the children in a letter accessed by Lusa.
Mónica Balsemão, Henrique Balsemão, Francisco Maria Balsemão, Joana Balsemão, and Francisco Pedro Balsemão express the sense of loss uniting everyone working within the media group, noting that all were “part of his family: wife, children, and grandchildren, but also the many professionals who collaborated or continue to work with Impresa.”
For the children, Balsemão’s death is also a loss for the entire media sector—where he was a “unique and visionary figure”—and for the country, which they highlight as “one of the founding fathers” of democracy.
The children thank the workers for helping Balsemão build “a story that brought the country winds of freedom, with Expresso, winds of modernity, with SIC, winds of change, characterized by his pioneer spirit.”
In both projects, they emphasize, Balsemão acted with “freedom, independence, rigor.”
The children quote, in the letter, phrases from their father highlighting his core principle of fighting for freedom, especially freedom of expression, and his goal of leaving the world better than he found it.
“Francisco Pinto Balsemão left the world better. It is our duty to follow his legacy,” the children state at the end of the letter.
Francisco Pinto Balsemão, former PSD leader, ex-prime minister, and founder of Expresso and SIC, died on Tuesday at the age of 88.
Balsemão founded the weekly newspaper Expresso in 1973 during the dictatorship, SIC, the first private television channel in Portugal, in 1992, and the media group Impresa, which owns the TV station and the newspaper.
In 1974, following the April 25th revolution, he founded, along with Francisco Sá Carneiro and Magalhães Mota, the Partido Popular Democrático (PPD), later renamed Partido Social Democrata (PSD). He led two governments after Sá Carneiro’s death, between 1981 and 1983, and was, until his passing, a member of the Council of State, a consultative body for the President of the Republic.
Francisco Pinto Balsemão’s wake will be held today from 6:30 PM in Lisbon, at the Jerónimos Monastery. The mass will take place on Thursday at 1:00 PM, also at the Jerónimos Monastery.
The wake and mass are open to the public, while the funeral is reserved for the family.
