National Mourning Day in Portugal – 11th September 2021
September 11, 2021
Today, INL associates to the three days of National Mourning decreed by the Government of Portugal, one of our member-states, for the death of Jorge Sampaio, President of the Portuguese Republic between 1996 and 2006.
After serving as President of the Republic, he was appointed in 2006 by the secretary-general of the United Nations as a special envoy for the Fight against Tuberculosis. Between 2007 and 2013, he held the post of High Representative of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations.
He currently chaired the Global Platform for Syrian Students, which Sampaio founded in 2013 to contribute to the academic emergency that the conflict in Syria had created, leaving thousands of young people without access to education.
The Prime Minister of Portugal, António Costa, remembered Sampaio as “someone who was an example and a fighter for freedom and democracy and who has given such prestige to our political life with his ethical verticality”
Jorge Sampaio died on the 10th of September 2021, at the age of 81 years old.