April 25th is “first date” but without November there would be no Constitution, says Marcelo
This Tuesday, the President of the Republic highlighted the 25th of April as the “first date”, “without which there would not have been November 1975”, but stressed that, without the 25th of November, there would not have been the 1976 Constitution.
In a brief speech, lasting just over two minutes, at the military parade in Praça do Comércio, in Lisbon, organized to mark the 50th anniversary of the 25th of November 1975, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa evoked António Ramalho Eanes, moments after a message from the former President of the Republic was read at this ceremony.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa highlighted that Ramalho Eanes was a “Captain of April 1974, April without which there would not have been November 1975”, and the “military leader of November 1975, November without which there would not have been the 1976 Constitution”.
Continuing to highlight the career of Ramalho Eanes, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said that the former President was the “Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces in 1976, without whom there would not have been the transition from revolutionary legitimacy to democratic, representative and electoral legitimacy”.
The President of the Republic said that, in the person of Ramalho Eanes, he evokes “the values of freedom, democracy and the rule of law, and the military virtues of camaraderie, discipline, the spirit of sacrifice, loyalty, the sense of mission and patriotism that made and make the nobility of Portugal”.
“In November 2025, as in April 2024, that first date, we celebrate these values and these predicates, gratitude to our armed forces always, in the name of Portugal”, he stated.
At the end of the ceremony, in brief statements to journalists, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa considered that the “parade went very, very well”, indicating that he congratulated the Minister of National Defense, Nuno Melo.
Asked if it seems to him that organizing this military parade makes sense, the President of the Republic replied: “Of course”.
“In 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, with General Eanes as President, there was always,” he said.