Lisbon, Oct. 22, 2025 (Lusa) - The cabinet approved a decree of national mourning for two days, to be carried out today and Thursday, following the death of Francisco Pinto Balsemão, a source from the Prime Minister's office told Lusa.

According to the same source, the decree has already been promulgated by the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.

Former prime minister Francisco Pinto Balsemão, founder and activist of the number one PSD party, died on Tuesday, aged 88.

On Tuesday evening, in a first reaction to Balsemão's death, the prime minister, Luís Montenegro, said that the government intended to decree a day of national mourning for the date of Francisco Pinto Balsemão's funeral.

"We have a cabinet meeting tomorrow and our predisposition - I've already had the opportunity to speak to some members of the government - will be to decree national mourning on the day that the funeral ceremonies for Dr Francisco Pinto Balsemão will take place," he said at the time, saying that he still had no information as to what that date would be.

Luís Montenegro spoke to the media in the middle of the PSD National Council, where he received the news of Balsemão's death.

Francisco Pinto Balsemão, former PSD leader, former prime minister and founder of Expresso and SIC, died on Tuesday aged 88.

Balsemão was the founder, in 1973, of the weekly newspaper Expresso, during the dictatorship, of SIC, the first private television in Portugal, in 1992, and of the Impresa media group.

In 1974, after the 25 April Revolution, he founded the Popular Democratic Party (PPD) with Francisco Sá Carneiro and Magalhães Mota, later the Social Democratic Party (PSD). He headed two governments after Sá Carneiro's death, between 1981 and 1983, and has been a member of the Council of State, the advisory body to the President of the Republic, until now.

SMA/ADB // ADB.

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