(8 Jan 2017) Dozens of Portuguese gathered on Sunday at the Socialist Party headquarters in Lisbon to pay tribute to late former Portuguese President Mario Soares.
Soares, a former prime minister and president of Portugal 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. He was 92.
Lisbon's Red Cross Hospital said in a statement he died there with his son and his daughter at his bedside.
The hospital did not provide a cause of death, but Soares had been a patient since 13 December and in a coma for the past two weeks.
On Sunday, dozens were seen queuing to sign the official book of condolences.
The leader of the main opposition party and former Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho was also seen leaving the building.
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.
Socialist Prime Minister Antonio Costa said three days of national mourning will begin Monday and that Soares would have a state funeral on Tuesday, 10th January.
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