The remarks by José Aguiar-Branco about former Prime Minister and first leader of the PPD, Francisco Sá Carneiro, and former Defense Minister and CDS founder, Adelino Amaro da Costa, were met with applause from all deputies.
“Forty-five years ago in Camarate, seven lives were lost, including Francisco Sá Carneiro and Adelino Amaro da Costa, two democrats, two statesmen, two men who lost their lives serving the country,” stated the President of the Assembly of the Republic.
José Pedro Aguiar-Branco recalled that both Francisco Sá Carneiro and Adelino Amaro da Costa were elected deputies months before, in the legislative elections of 1980.
“One was appointed Prime Minister, the other was named Defense Minister. Forty-five years later, we do not know how the country might have been if we hadn’t lost them. But we know the ideas they stood for, the project they had,” he affirmed.
According to José Pedro Aguiar-Branco, Francisco Sá Carneiro and Amaro da Costa “had a confident yet respectful manner, assertive but moderate.”
“Today, I want to evoke them for what they were, what they could have been, for what their legacy demands of us,” he added.
On December 4, 1980, the Cessna plane carrying then-Prime Minister Francisco Sá Carneiro and Defense Minister Adelino Amaro da Costa to Porto crashed in Camarate, north of Lisbon.
The crash also claimed the lives of crew members and the rest of the entourage, including Snu Abecassis, Manuela Amaro da Costa, António Patrício Gouveia, Jorge Albuquerque, and Alfredo de Sousa.
