Former President Aníbal Cavaco Silva emphasized the significant role of the Social Democratic Party founder and former Prime Minister in advancing freedom and democracy in Portugal, justifying the reason for honoring him with an award.
Highlighting his boldness and pioneering spirit in free media, Cavaco Silva noted that Pinto Balsemão was “also a crucial entrepreneur for press freedom in the country, as the founder of Expresso and SIC.”
“A pioneer in free media, even before freedom prevailed, Pinto Balsemão demonstrated boldness against the former regime,” the former president wrote, emphasizing that “the foundation of the then Democratic Popular Party on May 6, 1974, alongside Sá Carneiro and Magalhães Mota, will remain a legacy for the history of our democracy.”
In Pinto Balsemão’s activities as prime minister and PSD leader, Cavaco Silva highlighted “his commitment to the 1982 constitutional revision and negotiations for Portugal’s accession to the European Economic Community.”
“In this time of sorrow, I send my sincerest condolences to his family, on behalf of myself and my wife, and bow before his memory,” the former president concluded.
Francisco Pinto Balsemão, a former PSD leader, ex-prime minister, and founder of Expresso and SIC, passed away on Tuesday at the age of 88.
The news of the death of the PSD’s number one member was conveyed by the social-democratic president and prime minister, Luís Montenegro, during a national council meeting of the party in Lisbon.
Balsemão founded the weekly newspaper Expresso in 1973, during the dictatorship, SIC, the first private television station in Portugal, in 1992, and the media group Impresa.
In 1974, following the April 25 Revolution, he founded, along with Francisco Sá Carneiro and Magalhães Mota, the Democratic Popular Party (PPD), later the Social Democratic Party (PSD). He led two governments after the death of Sá Carneiro, between 1980 and 1983, and was a member of the Council of State, an advisory body to the President of the Republic.
