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Roundup: Portugal mourns death of former president Mario Soares

Xinhua, January 8, 2017 Adjust font size:

Three days of national mourning starting Monday were declared Saturday in Portugal following the death of 92-year old former president Mario Soares, who helped Portugal transition to democracy.

Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said the former president was a symbol of freedom in a speech from the Belem palace in Lisbon on Saturday.

"Mario Soares was born and was trained to be a fighter, to have a cause for this fight, which was freedom. Freedom in Portugal, freedom in Europe, freedom across the world," Rebelo de Sousa said.

"It was in homage to freedom that he was chased after, arrested and deported, and lived in exile until 1974, and for which he fought during the troubled years of the revolution," Sousa recalled the life of Soares.

Prime Minister of Portugal, Antonio Costa, said Mario Soares was irreplaceable and the country would be eternally grateful to him.

"We owe him a lot and we will be eternally grateful. The government will declare three days of national mourning from Monday and a state funeral of honor held for him," he announced.

Another former President, Jorge Sampaio, said his death was a loss for Portugal and for Europe.

"He was a great constructor of democracy," Sampaio said. "What was most surprising was his extraordinary capacity for fighting during 70 years of his life, from a young age until practically a short time ago. He was always in the front line."

Catarina Martins from Portugal's Left Bloc party said Soares was contradictory, but she's still grateful to him.

"He was a man with as many lives as our democracy. Certainly contradictory. And without forgetting, I choose to remember him gratefully as the man who defended the country against the troika."

Soares had a crucial role in the country's transition to democracy after the Carnation Revolution in 1974. He was co-founder of Portugal's Socialist Party and prime minister of Portugal from 1976 to 1978 and from 1983 to 1985.

He served as president between 1986 and 1996.

Soares was admitted to the Red Cross hospital in Lisbon on Dec. 13, 2016. Doctors confirmed his death Saturday.

International figures, including the President of the European Commission Jean Claude Juncker, have sent their condolences. Endit