Presidential candidate Luís Marques Mende proposes the creation of a journalism award “Freedom of the Press, Francisco Pinto Balsemão”to encourage journalistic work that respects the legacy and example of the founder of Expresso and SIC who died this Tuesday, aged 88. In a declaration of homage to the founder of the PSD, Marques Mendes praises the “exemplary democrat”his “vision” and “inspiration”, and praises the role of “architect” of true European democracy in Portugal.
“With this name or another, the two objectives behind the idea of creating this award are clear: to remember Balsemão’s notable example in the media and, then, to encourage journalistic work that can continue this work in favor of press freedom. It is a suggestion that I leave to society to be reflected on, from a constructive perspective”, he said. Balsemão was the president of the Political Committee for Marques Mendes’ presidential candidacy and his last political intervention was a appeal for the Social Democrats to “close ranks” around the candidate.
Speaking at the door of the Assembly of the Republic, where Pinto Balsemão debuted as a deputy of the “Liberal Wing”, before helping to found the PSD, Marques Mendes highlights the role that Balsemão had in the PSD, as founder, deputy, minister and prime minister, and above all as a guarantor of the unity and “cohesion” of the party. “If it hadn’t been for Balsemão’s strategic vision, the PSD would perhaps have had a fatal crisis”he said, giving as an example the “Individual Options” crisis of 1978, when the PSD had an “almost fatal split”.
“Balsemão avoided fatality by not leaving the party. He had vision, he put the essentials ahead of the accessories“, says Marques Mendes, who was part of the “unpostponable” group, who disagreed with Francisco Sá Carneiro’s strategy of not supporting Mota Pinto’s presidential initiative government, and who defended the PSD’s approach to the left – and not the right. The episode led to Sá Carneiro’s departure from the party leadership.
Marques Mendes also highlights the “exemplary democrat” that Balsemão was, namely in the constitutional revision of 1982 – which was a kind of “25th of April constitutional” of which Balsemão was one of its main “architects”. “He was the architect of a vital change: the replacement from military to civil guardianship; the replacement of revolutionary legitimacy by democratic legitimacy; the creation of a European-style democracy”he recalls, also highlighting the “lord” that Balsemão was, both in politics, in social communication and in business life.
“A cultured, cosmopolitan, informed man, with a world and a vision. An aristocrat of good manners, an elegant, frontal but elegant person“, he said, praising the “courage” of having founded Expresso and the “vision” of having created SIC. For Marques Mendes, Balsemão’s most striking and consensual trait is his “defense of freedom of the press.” “He has always defended the independence of the media,” he said, stating that “all of this is very un-Portuguese, but it is very inspiring.”
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