[ad_1]
President of the Republic recalled General Loureiro dos Santos, who died on Saturday as "a patriot," a "consensual person" in the Armed Forces and in the country, and a "thinker of Portugal and the world."
"It is a great loss, but it is an example, a very important example in times when the homeland values, national identity and national independence, the prestige and respect of the armed forces are essential values," Marcelo Rebelo of Sousa told journalists when he came to presented condolences to the general's family in the chapel of the Military Academy in Lisbon, shortly after returning to Guatemala, where he attended the Ibero-American summit.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa paid tribute to the army, which played a key role in the democratic transition and the "institutionalization of the armed forces" in the post-revolutionary period and as "thinker of Portugal and of the world." And he compared Loureiro dos Santos with the philosopher and essayist Eduardo Lourenço, who also went to the café to offer condolences to his family.
Considering that Loureiro dos Santos is a personality that "has sparked a national consensus," the President of the Republic also noted his courage and openness, saying that "if he does not agree to leave, he has left what has happened more than once" , as happened with the so-called "colonel's law", in which he resigned from the post of Chief of Staff of the Army (CEME).
In a commentary on the absence of party representatives at the funeral, Marcelo said that "it will certainly be" tomorrow "for funeral ceremonies" because "if there is partisan democracy today in Portugal, this is largely due to General Loureiro dos Santos ".
National Defense Minister João Gomes Cravinho reminded that the general who made an academic career "leaves a very rich heritage" as an intellectual and thinker and "in political action" made a "vital contribution to the transition of the Armed Forces to the democratic regime . "He recalled an ex-CEME sentence when he said that" the armed forces served the previous regime, helped to overthrow and consolidate the democratic regime, "which came out on April 25, 1974.
Asked if one of Loureiro dos Santos's legacies could not be the debate on the return of the Compulsory Military Service (SMO), the minister rejected this idea, considering that SMO "may be necessary in a conjunction, it was necessary in the past, but at the present time not. "
"I do not think so," he said.
Ramalho Eanes, former President of the Republic, underlined that Loureiro dos Santos "helped democratize an institution [Forças Armadas], which was not easy on April 25 and PREC [Processo Revolucionário em Curso]"
Jorge Lacão, Vice-President of Parliament, on behalf of Ferro Rodrigues, who is in China, also passed through the funeral; Minister of National Defense, João Gomes Cravinho; Major Mário Tomé, the former military and former UDP deputy and former PSD defense minister Figueiredo Lopes, and Carlos Costa, governor of the Bank of Portugal.
The military hierarchy was head of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, Silva Ribeiro, and the current CEME, General Nunes da Fonseca.
Gender. José Loureiro dos Santos, former Minister of National Defense and former Chief of Staff of the Army, died on Saturday in Lisbon, a victim of the disease.
Born in Villela do Douro, Sabrosa municipality, in Vila Real, on September 2, 1936, José Alberto Loureiro dos Santos was minister of national defense between 1978 and 1980 in constitutional governments IV and V, headed by Carlos Mota Pinto and Maria de Lourdes Pintassilgo, both directors of the presidential initiative of Ramalho Eanes.
Loureiro dos Santos was Deputy Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces in 1977, and Chief of Staff of the Army.
Source link
