Francisco Pinto Balsemão’s son and Executive President of Grupo Impresa described his father as a “hero” for the family. In his tribute to the founder of SIC and Expresso, he assured that he did not use the word “light heart” as Balsemão “was not perfect”, but was, without a doubt, “an example”.
“It is said among children that the first hero is their father”, Francisco Pedro Balsemão began by stating that, despite not being able to show the text read at the ceremony to his family, he “had no doubt” that “Francisco Pinto Balsemão was and is our hero”.
The word is not used “lightly”, he points out, first because of its emotional charge and then “because it is a common place and if there is something our father didn’t like, it was common places”.
Francisco Pedro Balsemão recalls that “hero” has “its etymology in Ancient Greece” and that “Greek heroes were situated between gods and men”, that is, “they were not immortal like the gods, but they were not simple mortals either”. And the founder of SIC and Expresso was not a “simple mortal” for himself, for his family, or for the country.
“At this time when we are celebrating the life of someone who was so special to us, it must be said that our father was not a perfect person, because, let’s say, that concept does not exist”, highlights the Executive President of Grupo Impresa.
Remembering Balsemão’s absence that often marked the lives of those closest to him, Francisco Pedro Balsemão highlights his importance: “if we are here today suffering so much because he left – and we said so many times to try to deceive ourselves that he was eternal and that this day would never come -, it is because he did much more for us than what was left undone.”
“It was transcendent”, he stated, through “love, his values and his example”, creating a family that, guarantees Francisco Pedro Balsemão, “will do everything to maintain and reinforce his legacy”.
“Francisco Pinto Balsemão leaves 20 descendants including children, grandchildren and a great-grandson, Martim, who was born just over a week ago. Among these we have managers, entrepreneurs, free spirits, future lawyers, designers, astronauts in training, class delegates, surfers, fishermen, artists, footballers, radio broadcasters, great communicators and, fortunately, all sports fans. In addition to our forehead high, we are different, but we are united, strong, fun, as he wanted and in his image. We have no doubt that the name Balsemão is synonymous with values forged over 88 years of life and which are unique and unbreakable”, he described.
Throughout the speech, the CEO also recalled one of the “most important values” which was “demand”: “For our father, because we, like him, were born with a silver spoon, we had to do more than others. We are privileged, he said, and therefore we have the obligation to leave the world better. This is a phrase that has been heard a lot and that has been written a lot in recent days, but we have known it in the family for decades and we all, without exception, we follow it faithfully.”
Another of the lessons left by his father, through the expression “he who has nails plays the guitar”, was to take advantage of “the opportunities that are given to us and, preferably, we are the ones who create them and try harder than others to take advantage of them”.
“Never give up and never run away. The winners, as someone said, are not those who never lose, but those who never give up,” he added.
In his speech lasting around eight minutes, Francisco Pedro Balsemão recalled how his father could have turned his back on fighting for what he believed in, as he had the privilege of being born into an upper-class family, but he never did. Just as he never stopped being guided by humanism, “putting the human being at the center of everything”.
“His enormous heart touched everything and everyone. The messages he sent condolences when a worker’s family member died, the congratulatory phone calls to one of his grandchildren when he got a good grade on a test, or the boleros he sang to his little flower, to Tita, to his wife, are proof of this”, he states.
In the end, Francisco Pinto Balsemão’s son once again emphasized: “He was and was our hero for all these reasons. Above all because he lived an upright and dignified life.”
The post “He said that we were privileged and, therefore, we have an obligation to leave the world better”: Francisco Pedro Balsemão, at his father’s funeral appeared first on Veritas News.
