The President of the Portuguese Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, decorated Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo with the Grand Cross of the Order of Liberty during the commemorative ceremony held on the occasion of the 107th anniversary of the proclamation of the Portuguese Republic.

Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa remembered the first and only Prime-Minister of Portugal as a “humanist and a christian person” who played a very important role in “affirming women’s role in a time when it wasn’t easy affirming the importance of women at a time when it wasn’t that easy”.

The Order of Liberty distinguishes “relevant services provided in defense of the values of civilization, for the dignity of the human person and the cause of freedom”. During her life, Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo received the Grand Cross of the Order of Christ in 1991 and the Grand Cross of the Order of Infante D. Henrique in 1994.