With the ceremony lasting most of the day, Rebelo de Sousa spent the morning in Parliament where he took a short oath in front of several hundred people before heading off to the presidential palace at lunchtime.
Rebelo de Sousa, who is 67 and was elected with 52 percent of the vote, succeeds Aníbal Cavaco Silva and will remain in office until 2021.
Throughout his career the now-President has donned various guises, including that of government minister and Member of Parliament, a law professor, journalist, analyst and pundit.
During his morning in Parliament the new Head of State made a speech in which he promised to be a President “for everyone without exception.”
He pledged to be a “President for all” from start to end of his mandate, “without wanting any more than the Constitution allows or any less than Fundamental Law imposes.
“A president who is neither for nor against anyone. So it will be, politically, from beginning to end of this term”, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa stressed in his address, which received a standing ovation from the PSD, PS and CDS stands.
The only member of the PAN (Party for People, Animals and Nature) Party remained seated while applauding the new president’s speech, while members of the PCP, BE and PEV parties failed to muster a clap.
President Rebelo de Sousa added that socially, he will be “as much in favour of young people who want to exercise their qualifications and seek employment, as of the woman who expects greater recognition for her role in a world still so unequal, the pensioner who dreamed of an April 25 [Revolution] but which does not match their current horizons, the scientist looking for incentives that are always postponed or the farmer, merchant and industrialist, who, day by day, survive the world of obstacles around them.”
He reiterated that “the President of the Republic is a President for all. Without easy promises or programmes that we know cannot be fulfilled, but with constant determination. Fully acknowledging his powers and duties.”
Speaking to the more than 500 guests and 230 MPs that make up Portugal’s parliament, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa rounded off his speech by quoting Miguel Torga, considered one of Portugal’s greatest writers, by appealing to the self-esteem of the Portuguese.
“We are worth much more than we think or say. Essentially, our way of being – that which distinguishes us from others – is the indomitable creative restlessness that presides over our ecumenical vocation. Embracing the whole world”, the new president concluded.
Speaking after the ceremony Portugal’s Prime Minister António Costa said the newly sworn-in President “spoke for all of us.”
In brief comments to the press following the address the Prime Minster added that “today is the day that we listen to him and don’t speak.”
Prime Minister Costa said the incumbent president’s speech was “one that we can all relate to, an important sign of the essential function of a President of the Republic in uniting Portuguese to serve Portugal.”