Francisco Pinto Balsemão has always been a great admirer of Spain. “I like everything about Spain, especially its people and their unique philosophy,” he said. He had the fortune of making lasting friends in the neighboring country. Some of great relevance, such as the now king emeritus Juan Carlos, with whom he shared youthful pursuits in the summers of Estoril, or his fellow journalist Juan Luis Cebrián.
Balsemão always maintained a close relationship with the Spanish monarch, which guaranteed him great proximity to the Zarzuela palace, residence of the royal family, without boasting about it. With Cebrián, whom he met in Strasbourg in May 1968, studying at the International School of Journalism, the friendship reached the family sphere: they are godparents to each other’s children. The founder of Expresso also forged relationships that emerged in politics, namely with former Spanish prime ministers Adolfo Suárez, Leopoldo Calvo Sotelo and Felipe González.
Cebrián, who has always recognized an ancestral arrogance of the Spanish towards their Portuguese neighbors, believes that the 25th of April 1974 greatly influenced the Spanish Transition, as evidenced by the creation, following the Portuguese example, of the Democratic Military Union, which had so much influence on the new generations of the Spanish armed forces before the death of the dictator Francisco Franco, in 1975.
Balsemão, who in 1989 received the Grand Cross of Isabella the Catholic, the highest Spanish civil decoration, especially appreciated the award, in 2007, of the VII edition of the journalistic award from the “Diario Madrid” Foundation.
This newspaper, the cradle of training for generations of Spanish journalists, fully reflects what it was like to provide information in Spain during the times of Francoism. An article by its president, Rafael Calvo Serer, with the title “Retire in time”, alluded to the example set in France by General De Gaulle, who decided to leave power after losing a referendum on his governance. The Spanish leader was outraged and the newspaper was closed for four months.
The “Diario Madrid” was, from now on, in the censorious sights of the regime, which did not let up until it managed to close it down for good, in 1971. So that there was no doubt, a real estate operation for this It ended, in April 1973, with the implosion of the building where the newspaper operated, in the heart of the Salamanca neighborhood, in the capital. It was one of the most photographed episodes of the time.
All these antecedents gave the award a special patina, Balsemão acknowledged to the author of these lines, while we waited at the Foundation’s headquarters, on Calle Larra, for the arrival of the then princes of Asturias, Felipe and Letizia, who were going to present him with the award. The praise went to his compadre Cebrián, then the top figure in the journalistic and business direction of the Prisa Group empire, with the daily “El País” at the forefront.
“Francisco always seemed to me to be a man of deep moral convictions and an undeniable passion for politics. At that time, we both viewed power with the natural skepticism of someone who, for one reason or another, was always close to it, and never within it, but always with the desire to do things that would facilitate the democratic transition from dictatorship to a regime of freedom. For this reason, Francisco accepted to be a deputy representing honest dissent, which power paid with contempt and ignorance. That group of ‘liberal’ deputies from ‘caetanismo’, among whom were also Sá Carneiro and some of the notable representatives of the current Social-Democratic Party of Portugal, had the virtue of shining a light, however faint it may be, in the darkness of the regime, and its difficulties highlighted the ineffectiveness of any solution to reform a regime totalitarian, other than the rupture with traditional power structures”.
“I was at Francisco’s side when the voracity of a Bank and the miserable revenge of right-wing politicians came together with the commitment to wrest from him the platform of ‘Diário Popular’. I was able to see his spirit of decision and his professional value when he decided to found ‘Expresso’ as a newspaper fighting for freedoms and risking his personal assets in this company, instead of abandoning himself to rest or enjoying a stable economic situation, managing his income from a prestigious law firm”, continued the Spanish journalist.
“The reason for everything was very simple: Francisco is, first and foremost, a journalist and an intellectual, and also a citizen committed to his social environment and his country. I also accompanied him on the long nights before the founding of the weekly newspaper, fighting against the imbecile censorship of a group of colonels in the pay of the dictatorship, who dedicated themselves, in the early hours of Saturday, to carefully drawing out the creative effort with colored pencils. reflection of a considerable number of people, a thousand times more respectable than them, both for their level of knowledge and their desire to serve citizens and their professional training”, continued Cebrián.
Balsemão thanked him for the distinction with words of special appreciation for Spain, in defense of democracy and the role of the media, even in moments of great technological upheaval, in modern societies. “More than the Portuguese past or present, I’m interested in talking about the present and future of freedom of expression on a global scale. That’s where we prove that this freedom does not exist in large areas of Asia, Africa or the Middle East, in addition to the growing difficulties in countries like Russia or Venezuela”, said the winner to the audience. “The Portuguese and the Spanish, who regained their freedom just over 30 years ago, cannot forget the billions of citizens who, in the 21st century, continue to have no access to a free press, radio and television, are unable to access global information on the Internet, and find their cell phones controlled.”
“We tend — and I speak against myself — to forget, to look the other way, to pretend that their problems are not our problems, to ignore that there are journalists imprisoned or executed simply for carrying out their mission, or that there are media companies closed for committing the sin of trying to be free. It is obvious that we must protect the exercise of freedom of information in our young democracies”, stated Balsemão. “Political power, more to the right or more to the left, and economic power — increasingly uncontrollable, because increasingly global — do not like independent journalism and quality. They seek to condition it, threaten it or corrupt it, which they sometimes achieve, unfortunately.”
Of all these affinities, this correspondent ended up benefiting, if I may make a brief personal digression. When, back in 1985, Expresso was left without a correspondent in Madrid, Balsemão asked his compadre Cebrián for help in finding another. I received the message from my director at “El País” through the unforgettable Jesús de la Serna, who was our boss and teacher at the newspapers “Pueblo” and “Informaciones”, which have now disappeared. He warned me that I shouldn’t have any illusions, since what Expresso was going to pay me would, at most, cover an annual trip to Lisbon and buy textiles, perhaps some ceramics…
It was the beginning of a story that has lasted 40 years. I received a plane ticket and a reservation at the Hotel Florida, in front of the historic building on Rua Duque de Palmela where the newspaper’s editorial office was located. I quickly reached an agreement with the group of enthusiastic journalists who fed me “Pabe” while (I suppose) they assessed my competence. There were Vicente Jorge Silva, José Manuel Fernandes, the editor of Internacional, Benjamim Formigo — always talking about his military adventures in Angola…
Those intense days ended in a meeting with the architect José Antonio Saraiva, famous director of the weekly, and a brief greeting to Balsemão himself, who from then on always distinguished me with his affection and respect. I never felt, directly or indirectly, the slightest indication about the opportunity of a subject or the orientation of a work.
In that overcrowded newsroom, I remember José Cardoso, Fernanda Barão (unsurpassed at imitating animal sounds), Dulce Salomé (always attentive), Henrique Monteiro, João Garcia — my wife and I were their hosts on a visit prior to the opening of the Seville Universal Exhibition in 1992 —, Rui Cardoso and many others. They are an irreversible part of my personal and professional substance.
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