The President of Portugal, Cavaco Silva, gave the keynote speech in Lamego today at the Portugal Day* celebrations, saying that although the republic still has a long way to go to return to "levels that existed before the crisis, there are now reasonable grounds to face the future with more optimism and confidence."
Cavaco Silva was speaking at the formal celebrations for Dia de Portugal, and criticised the "professionals of disbelief and the prophets of excessive pessimism," as it was possible to celebrate June 10th "with confidence in the future" stressing the conutry’s "political stability and governability."
In some worldly advice to the government, Cavaco Silva said it must "set out in the medium-term, a line of action favorable to economic growth, job creation, sustainability of public finances and the promotion of social justice."
The socialists and communist party spokesmen criticized the President address as being 'partisan' but other party members praised his expressions of hope for the country.
The socialist spokesman Ferro Rodrigues said that it was "understandable that the President of the Republic wanted to give a sense of optimism to the country,” but he thought it less acceptable to have made a speech totally in line with the narrative of the current right-wing coalition when explaining the crisis, the post-crisis period and the future, especially as the general election “is just weeks away.”
The communist MP António Filipe also criticised the speech as being 'partisan' and said it was almost a party political broadcast for the government which had shocked him as the speech should have been more objective, detached and presidential.
But the parliamentary leader of the ruling PSD, Luís Montenegro, said that the President's speech was a "fair recognition" of the tenacity shown by the Portuguese in recent years.
The parliamentary leader of the CDS-PP, Nuno Magalhães, applauded the speech’s emphasis on ‘hope’ which he saw as appropriate while not hiding the challenges that lie ahead.
The president spoke over the noise made by 150 vociferous protestors who has lost money in the collapse of BES.
Despite claims of freedom of expession and the right protest the BES account holders were not allowed near the presidential entourage, this made many of them doubly cross.
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* Portugal Day: June 10th is a public holiday in Portugal. The ‘Dia de Portugal, de Camões e das Comunidades Portuguesas,’ managed to avoid cancellation by the Passos Coelho government when it reduced the number of days off enjoyed by workers.
Portuguese citizens and emigrants throughout the world are celebrating the day which commemorates the 1580 death of national literary icon Luís de Camões.
Camões wrote Os Lusíadas, Portugal's national epic poem celebrating Portuguese history and achievements.
The poem focuses mainly on the C15th Portuguese explorations which brought fame and more importantly, riches into the country.
The poem is considered one of the most important works in Portuguese literature and became a symbol for the great feats of the Portuguese Empire.
Camões was an adventurer who lost one eye fighting in Ceuta, wrote the poem while travelling, and survived a shipwreck in Cochinchina, present-day Vietnam.
According to the story, Camões saved this epic poem by swimming with one arm while keeping the other arm above water. Since his date of birth is unknown, the date of his death is celebrated as Portugal's National Day.
During Salazar’s authoritarian Estado Novo regime, Camões was used as a symbol for the Portuguese nation but was suspended in the aftermath of the Carnation Revolution in 1974.
Celebrations resumed after 1974 and were expanded to include the Portuguese emigrants and their descendants in communities all around the world, an estimated 3.75 million.
