Former Prime Minister António Costa attended the funeral services of the former socialist minister João Cravinho on Saturday, highlighting Cravinho’s long-standing engagement with national issues. The former minister passed away on Wednesday.
“He was a man who foresaw many things. He found new financing schemes to help us complete the last major cycle of public works the country was undertaking, while we simultaneously had to meet budgetary restrictions for Euro membership,” Costa stated to journalists.
In Lisbon, where the ceremonies were held, the current President of the European Council emphasized that “men like João Cravinho are needed in Portuguese politics and in any political circumstance in any country; even among other nations, there are not many like João Cravinho.”
Costa also noted that Cravinho, who died at the age of 88, was “perhaps one of the Members of the European Parliament most connected to the concrete issues of the country.”
João Cravinho passed away on Wednesday at the age of 88. Born in Angola in 1936, he graduated in civil engineering from the Instituto Superior Técnico.
He served as Minister of Industry and Technology in the IV Provisional Government, led by Vasco Gonçalves, in 1975, and later as Minister of Equipment, Planning, and Territory Administration in the XIII Constitutional Government, headed by António Guterres.
