Figueira de Foz. May 17, 18 and 19, 1985. João Salgueiro faces Cavaco Silva. Loses by just 57 votes. Horse riding starts here. But that would have been the case if Alberto João Jardim hadn’t signed for others – “At some point the midnight limit was reached, [Cavaco] he comes up to me and says he has no signatures, I think four or five. ‘Give me that’ and I drew it for five guys from Madeira. Then I had to go to the hotel and knock on their door: ‘Look, I signed for you (…) If they ask tomorrow if you signed, say yes’. And that was it, it was done” – thus helping the man who would become prime minister and president of the republic?
Cavaco Silva recalled this Saturday, the day after the death of João Salgueiro, aged 88, the “something unexpected” that crossed fate in that year 1985. He had already called it “fado” or “fate” and spoke of the “general surprise, including mine” for “being the one who wins”, after the “peremptory refusal” “. At that congress, after Cavaco’s candidacy [apoiado pelo grupo da Nova Esperança onde militavam Marcelo, Barroso, Júdice e Santana] who defended Freitas do Amaral, former leader of the CDS, as a presidential candidate, in opposition to Salgueiro [apoiado por defensores do Bloco Central como Mota Amaral] defending a PSD candidate, this sentence of the former minister of Balsemão became famous: “Many asylums are full of fake Napoleons (…) Between the madman and the real character it is not the degree of conviction that distinguishes them. It is only that in one case reality is one and in the other case one is illusion”.
“Life crossed my fate with that of João Salgueiro, somewhat unexpectedly, at the Congress of Figueira da Foz, where we contested the leadership of the PSD. I have always maintained a good relationship with Dr. João Salgueiro, benefiting on several occasions from his advice based on solid economic thinking”, wrote the former president. “A man who, with his knowledge of economics and his political and social intervention,” underlined Cavaco Silva, “tried to help our country find the right course” [curiosamente o lema das conferências do PSD – “Portugal no Rumo Certo”-, em 2014, que prepararam as legislativas de 2015].
The former president made it a point to commemorate the award, the Grand Cross of the Order of Christ, which he bestowed on June 10, 2010 on his former political opponent. In 2021, João Salgueiro was also decorated by Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, with the Grand Cross of the Order of Infante D. Henrique, at the conclusion of the 5th Congress of the Headquarters [Associação para o Desenvolvimento Económico e Social] which he founded in 1970. an “ersatz [substituto] tolerated by an unauthorized party,” António Barreto would say years later.
“Brilliant Economist”
Born in 1934 in São Paio de Merelim, Braga, João Maurício Fernandes Salgueiro studied economics at the Higher Institute of Economic and Financial Sciences (ISCEF). It was at the former Banco de Fomento Nacional, between 1959 and 1963, that he began his professional career as an economist. Regent ISCEF (current ISEG), from 1965, Until 1969 he assumed the leadership of the central planning department and technical secretary of the presidency of the council and until 1971 became secretary of state for planning in the government headed by Marcello Caetano.
In 1972 he became chairman of the Council for Scientific and Technological Research, where he remained until 1974. After the April 25 revolution, he joined the PSD. Less than a year, until March 1975, he was deputy governor of Banco de Portugal. He was president of the Foreign Investment Institute in 1981 and Minister of State, Finance and Planning, between 1981 and 1983, in the government of Pinto Balsemão [coligação PSD, CDS, PPM] and deputy between 1983 and 1985 – years of central bloc government.
Manager of Caixa Geral de Depósitos, from 1996 to 2000, he leaves earlier, assuming disagreements with the options and “strategy” of the Guterres government, warning that with “through the alienation of the Portuguese groups, people will realize that the position that the new generations will occupy in Portugal will be subordinated. A large part of the decision centers will disappear here, the production centers will disappear from here”.
Years later, in 2010, he and Sócrates criticize the government’s “pink speech” and say that a PEC4 must be prevented from criticizing the “muddle” of the bills. The question? “What is the government hiding to increase the debt by 2,700 million euros and get the pension fund from PT?”. The answer would come on April 6, 2011 with Troika.
“Portugal has today lost one of its most brilliant economists of the second half of the 20th centurynoted Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who praises the “particularly important role” of João Salgueiro “in economic planning, in the birth of flat regions, which would give rise to the CCDR, in the failed attempt at modernization under Marcello Caetano , in the public banking sector in the 1970s and 1980s, at the Ministry of Finance, where he led one of the most important sensitivities within the PPD-PSD and, for 50 years, at SEDES, of which he has been an inspiration, president and patron was, in the transition to democracy and into the 21st century”.
Luís Montenegro remembers “a man of unusual intelligence” and “commitment to the public cause” who “made Portugal think and think”.
Santos Silva, President of the Republic’s Assembly, emphasizes the “an economist and politician who marked the Portuguese public life of his time (…) He helped us reflect on the paths of our development”. “One of the most brilliant economists the country has ever had (…) has always developed his vision for the future of the Portuguese economysaid the Minister of Economic Affairs.
“The country loses and we all lose, with the death of one of the most brilliant Portuguese of recent decades, he has left us a greater Portuguese, a reference and example that we will always try to honor,” said SEDES.
In a statement, SEDES states that the association is “in mourning for the death of one of its founders and his soul”, adding that “A humanist and democrat, João Salgueiro was a patriot who was always at the service, he had a unique sense of mission and a vision of the future, for a fairer and more just country”.
The Portuguese Banking Association hailed the life of João Salgueiro, who died Friday at the age of 88, in memory of the president of the organization between 1994 and 2009, as an “illustrious economist and bank manager”.
In a short message to the editors, the Associação Portuguesa de Bancos (APB) said it learned “with great regret” of João Salgueiro’s death, and expressed its condolences to the family.
“João Salgueiro, an illustrious economist, bank manager, government official and civilly engaged citizen, leaves an indelible mark on Portuguese society, whose development has always guided his action”, reads the note.
President of the Portuguese Banking Association, following changes in the statutes that prevented the leader from being a banker, João Salgueiro was also vice-president of the Economic and Social Council.
Source: DN
