Ministers and secretaries of state from the three governments led by former Prime Minister and President Aníbal Cavaco Silva gathered today for a luncheon in Lisbon to commemorate 40 years since he became the head of government and 30 years since he left that role.
Several notable figures were present, including Cavaco Silva and his wife Maria, Manuela Ferreira Leite, Durão Barroso, Álvaro Amaro, Luís Marques Mendes, Mira Amaral, Luís Marques Guedes, Luís Filipe Menezes, Leonor Beleza, João de Deus Pinheiro, Fernando Faria de Oliveira, and the current Minister of Economy and Territorial Cohesion, Manuel Castro Almeida.
Upon his arrival, Aníbal Cavaco Silva expressed “great satisfaction and some emotion in participating in a lunch of reunion and fellowship with people who served the country as members of the 10th, 11th, and 12th constitutional governments.”
“It is an immense joy to meet these people who, along with me, gave their best to serve Portugal, some for ten years, others for much less time,” he said.
Cavaco Silva also noted that “today marks 40 years since the start of this governmental adventure” and “30 years since the end of these three governments, which concluded their mission in 1995.”
“One may like it or not, but it is hard not to conclude that I believe he was the best prime minister of Portuguese democracy. Not only was he in office the longest, but he was the one who developed the country the most and implemented the most reforms,” commented Luís Marques Mendes.
The former Deputy Minister and current presidential candidate stated that during the “10 years of Cavaco’s leadership, the country’s economic growth averaged 4% per year.”
“Today, achieving even 3% seems like science fiction,” he remarked.
Regarding the current government, Luís Marques Mendes observed that it is also “being reformist, which is why it is being heavily criticized in some areas, but it is making reforms.”
In her comments to the press, Manuela Ferreira Leite highlighted Cavaco Silva’s “unparalleled competence,” also describing him as “the best prime minister.”
The former Minister of Education noted that those governments were made up of individuals who were “very good, very supportive, very competent, all very committed to the same goals, without internal rivalries.”
She emphasized that they benefited from “impeccable leadership by the prime minister, who was very knowledgeable about everyone’s work, aware not only of the good things that could be achieved but also of the difficulties that existed.”
Mira Amaral, who served in all three governments, first as Minister of Labor and Social Security and then as Minister of Industry and Energy, defended that Aníbal Cavaco Silva “was indeed the best prime minister the country had in democracy.”
“Due to his economic and financial competence, his seriousness, the rigor he brought to Portuguese public life, and the political stability he achieved; we were able to join the then European Economic Community and access community funds. All of this made for very good years for the country,” he stated.
Former Health Minister Leonor Beleza remarked that “the country changed radically during those 10 years.”
“I fondly remember the desire to change, the intention to change, the tremendous solidarity among all of us who were working—there were many challenges in the initial phase when it was a minority government, with many resistances, followed by extraordinary moments when the minority turned into a majority because people understood, accepted, and wanted to participate in real changes,” she said.
Commenting on the current government, Leonor Beleza asserted that “it is doing what needs to be done to change what needs changing and, from that standpoint, there is some resemblance between those times 40 years ago and now.”
When asked if she saw the same reformist zeal in Luís Montenegro, she replied, “I don’t know if it’s the same, but there’s certainly an equivalent desire to change things because there are still many areas where our country doesn’t keep pace with others who have moved faster than us.”
Fernando Faria de Oliveira, one of the lunch organizers, explained that it was a “reunion of people who collaborated with Professor Cavaco Silva’s governments and took great pride in their participation.”
The former Minister of Commerce and Tourism asserted that these were the “most reformist, transformative, and achieving governments since April 25th” and that these 10 years were “a period of true progress for the country.”
