Em statements to journalists at Parliament, Hugo Soares expressed the PSD bench’s condolences to the friends and family of Pinto Balsemão, who passed away on Tuesday at the age of 88, as well as to SIC and Expresso, highlighting his “total commitment to freedom of the press and freedom of expression.”
“As the president of the PSD Parliamentary Group and also in the capacity of secretary-general, it was a great honor for us to have Dr. Francisco Pinto Balsemão as our number one member, but I believe it is also fair to say, and it is well-known, that he took great pride in being our number one member,” he stated.
The PSD leader considered his death “a great loss for the country,” from someone who left “an indelible mark on the construction of democratic Portugal.”
“He was absolutely visionary in economic freedom, in freedom of the press, and a man who will forever remain in the history of Portugal,” he emphasized.
Francisco Pinto Balsemão, former leader of the PSD, ex-prime minister, and founder of Expresso and SIC, died on Tuesday at the age of 88.
The Government has declared national mourning for today and Thursday, the days on which funeral ceremonies will be held.
The wake for Francisco Pinto Balsemão will take place today starting at 18:30 in Lisbon at the Jerónimos Monastery, with the mass taking place at the same location at 13:00 on Thursday, presided over by the emeritus patriarch cardinal of Lisbon, D. Manuel Clemente.
The wake and the mass are open to the public, while the funeral is reserved for family.
Balsemão was the founder, in 1973, of the weekly newspaper Expresso, even during the dictatorship, of SIC, the first private television in Portugal, in 1992, and the media group Impresa.
In 1974, after the Carnation Revolution, he founded, alongside Francisco Sá Carneiro and Magalhães Mota, the Popular Democratic Party (PPD), later the Social Democratic Party PSD. He led two governments following the death of Sá Carneiro, between 1981 and 1983, and was a member of the Council of State, the advisory body to the President of the Republic, until his death.
