The viewing was opened to the public at the Church of the Jerónimos Monastery in Lisbon after 6:30 PM, following a period reserved for family and close associates.
In the first hour, the highest State authorities paid their respects. President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, and Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro, arrived and departed together after spending about an hour inside the church.
Earlier, the President of the Assembly of the Republic, José Pedro Aguiar-Branco, visited the site for about ten minutes.
Later, former President of the Republic António Ramalho Eanes arrived at Jerónimos, accompanied by his wife, Manuela Eanes.
Among the attendees were former Prime Ministers Pedro Santana Lopes and Pedro Passos Coelho, the latter choosing to wait in the general queue, forgoing preferential protocol access.
From the current PSD/CDS-PP Government, ministers of State and Foreign Affairs, Paulo Rangel, Finance, Joaquim Miranda Sarmento, Justice, Rita Alarcão Júdice, Environment and Energy, Graça Carvalho, Culture, Youth and Sports, Margarida Balseiro Lopes, State Reform, Gonçalo Matias, and Infrastructure and Housing, Miguel Pinto Luz, were present.
Former presidential candidate Ana Gomes, along with presidential candidates António José Seguro, former Secretary-General of PS, Luís Marques Mendes, former PSD president, and Jorge Pinto, Livre deputy, also attended.
Former ministers such as João de Deus Pinheiro, Fernando Faria de Oliveira, Basílio Horta, Luís Pedro Mota Soares, Pedro Siza Vieira, António Vitorino, and Guilherme d’Oliveira Martins were also present.
The Mayor of Lisbon, Carlos Moedas, attended as well.
The parliamentary leader of CDS-PP, Paulo Núncio, and various PSD deputies, including the Vice-President of the Assembly of the Republic Teresa Morais, were also at the viewing. Sérgio Sousa Pinto, João Soares, Isabel Soares, Pedro Roseta, Filipa Roseta, and Francisco Louçã were among the figures who paid tribute to Pinto Balsemão.
Among television and journalism figures, both from within Impresa and from other media groups, attendees included Bárbara Guimarães, João Baião, Andreia Rodrigues, Daniel Oliveira, Ricardo Costa, António José Teixeira, Clara Ferreira Alves, and Ricardo Araújo Pereira.
The queue extended to the intersection between Praça do Império and Rua dos Jerónimos for most of the viewing, with entry to the church continuing beyond the planned end time until 10:30 PM.
As Balsemão was a former Prime Minister, the funeral ceremonies include military honors, with cadets from the three military branches (Army, Navy, and Air Force) in attendance.
The mass, scheduled for Thursday at 1:00 PM, also at the Jerónimos Monastery, will feature an honor guard by Air Force personnel, as Balsemão was an officer in this branch.
The funeral will be private, reserved for the family.
The Government declared two days of national mourning, today and Thursday, coinciding with the funeral ceremonies.
Former Prime Minister Francisco Pinto Balsemão, founder and first member of PSD, which he also led, passed away on Tuesday at the age of 88.
Francisco Pinto Balsemão chaired the media group Impresa, which includes the Expresso, founded by him during the dictatorship in 1973, and SIC, the first private television channel in Portugal, launched in 1992.
In 1974, after the Carnation Revolution, he co-founded the Partido Popular Democrático (PPD) with Francisco Sá Carneiro and Magalhães Mota, later becoming the Partido Social Democrata (PSD).
Following the death of Francisco Sá Carneiro, Balsemão led the PSD from 1980 to 1983 and headed the seventh and eighth constitutional governments of the Democratic Alliance (AD) from 1981 to 1983.
He was a member of the Council of State, a political advisory body to the President of the Republic.
