Loulé celebrates European honour for Cavaco Silva – Portugal Resident
The municipal council of Loulé has congratulated former Portuguese president Aníbal Cavaco Silva after he was awarded the newly created European Order of Merit by the European Parliament.
Cavaco Silva was born in Boliqueime, in the municipality of Loulé, on July 15, 1939. He served as Portugal’s Prime Minister between 1985 and 1995, and later as the country’s 19th President of the Republic from 2006 to 2016.
Loulé mayor Telmo Pinto celebrated the award, calling it a source of pride for the municipality and for the country.
“It is with great pride that, on behalf of the municipality, I salute the distinction of Aníbal Cavaco Silva with this prestigious award, an initiative of this important European institution. It is a fair international recognition of the crucial role this remarkable citizen from the municipality of Loulé, more specifically from the parish of Boliqueime, played in the consolidation of the European project and in Portugal’s integration into what was then the European Economic Community,” he said.
The recognition, he said, reinforces Loulé’s identity as a global and outward-looking territory, “open to the world and deeply connected to the values of cooperation, solidarity and progress that define the European Union, contributing once again to elevating the name of Loulé at an international level.”
Cavaco Silva was previously awarded the municipality of Loulé’s Medal of Honour in 1994.
