Portuguese democracy has revealed to us, over half a century, many personalities. Many of them could not have been before.
We are now living in a moment that will be indelibly marked by notoriety and the exercise of power by citizens who did not live in, or have no memory of, the country we were until 1974.
But, it is important to remember, personalities of unique dimensions were, for decades, hidden from the country and only democracy allowed us to get to know them.
And it was many of these who, after “the initial clean day”, built the foundations of the democratic regime, allowing us to live this half century of freedom.
If, today, we have no doubts that we want to live in a State of Law, that a free press is essential for us or that the source of legitimacy is free elections within a framework of representative democracy, if we have no doubts, it is because others, especially in the first decade of our democracy, built, often from scratch, the cornerstones of our current collective way of living.
As we complete a century since the birth of António Almeida Santos (2/15/2026), we feel gratitude for what he did for Portugal, for all of us, and we feel the sadness of no longer being able to count on his knowledge and advice.
We feel, like nails on the cross, a certain forgetfulness.
Forgetfulness which, by the way, is not the only one.
And these “forgetfulness” are symptoms of a society of memory and without a soul.
It makes sense to remember here a phrase that Almeida Santos said many times: “Friends don’t honor each other, they remember each other.”
Almeida Santos was everything in this country.
Unique lawyer, freedom fighter, builder of democracy, minister, deputy, president of the Assembly of the Republic.
Cultured and intelligent like few others, he knew how to put himself at the service of others.
Building a significant part of the legal system in which we live, assuming the greatest public responsibilities in the most difficult situations, affirming Parliament as the plural center of Portuguese democracy.
And, simultaneously, or even primarily, always being available for your PS.
To the trench where he understood how to fight for freedom, equality and justice. In good times and bad, António Almeida Santos was never absent from Portugal, the PS and the socialists.
Whether it was representation in the most demanding areopagus, or in the smallest and most remote village or municipality. I saw it, I lived it, and I won’t forget it!
And also, always ready to say a gift to his Coimbra from his heart and affections.
Always building democracy.
Much of the country we are today came from his “futures” and also friendly words, especially in difficult times.
Many of the laws of the Republic came from its “futures”.
From his “futures” came thousands of pages of his books, unfortunately little known.
In all of them, memory always went hand in hand with the future, always the raw lucidity of analysis was combined with hope, always, the obsession of equality was opposed to the madness of the world.
Of all his many books, I highlight two titles that are, in themselves, a portrait of their author. Stop, Think and Change and Please Care!.
And, “if my friends remember”, there is nothing better than remembering what António Almeida Santos wrote: “Until my pen hurts… I will write. I will write as I have always written, trying to pierce the silence or indifference or to contrast injustice.”
Lawyer and manager
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