(9 Jan 2017) Thousands of people gathered in Lisbon for the first day of national mourning for former Portuguese President Mario Soares.
His coffin was received with military honours at the historic Jeronimos Monastery, with the presence of the Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and the President of the Portuguese Parliament Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues.
Soares, who helped steer his country toward democracy after a 1974 military coup and grew into a global statesman through his work with the Socialist International movement, died on Saturday in Lisbon. He was 92.
Soares, a moderate Socialist, returned from 12 years of political exile after the almost bloodless Carnation Revolution toppled Portugal's four-decade dictatorship in 1974.
As a lawyer, he had used peaceful means to fight the country's regime, which eventually banished him.
Soares was elected Portugal's first post-coup prime minister in 1976 and thwarted Portuguese Communist Party attempts to bring the NATO member under Soviet influence during the Cold War. He helped guide his country from dictatorship to parliamentary democracy and a place in the European Union.
Prime Minister Antonio Costa said three days of national mourning would begin Monday and that Soares would have a state funeral on Tuesday, 10th January.
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