The Portuguese Communists and people have said farewell, in an atmosphere of great emotion, to Comrade Álvaro Cunhal.
Hundreds of thousands of people took part on June 15, in the funeral of Álvaro Cunhal. The 5 km long route between the PCP’s “Vitória” headquarters and the Alto de São João Cemetery, the first half of which had initially been planned to be covered by an automobile cortége, was eventually fully covered on foot by a vast crowd which accompanied Álvaro Cunhal’s coffin. This march on foot was also joined by the whole leadership of the PCP, the Party’s General Secretary Jerónimo de Sousa, and the Leadership of the Portuguese Communist Youth, JCP.
Since the previous day, many and many thousands of people went to the PCP’s “Vitória” headquarters waiting in a line that was at all times hundreds of meters long, to pay their last tribute to comrade Álvaro Cunhal.
Many Portuguese personalities of the most diverse areas of national life, historic leaders of the PCP, leaders of the trade union and associative movements, personalities of cultural life, high representatives of the Portuguese State, the President of the Republic, the Chairman of Parliament, members of the Government and leaders of the main Portuguese political parties, among many others, also joined in the last tribute to Álvaro Cunhal.
The PCP has received in its headquarters hundreds of messages of condolences from the whole world, from Communist and progressive parties, from international organizations, from various personalities of the world Communist and progressive movement and also many messages from individual communists and progressive people from all over the world.
Various Communist and progressive parties sent high-level delegations to Álvaro Cunhal’s funeral, among them the Communist Party of Brazil, the PAICV of Cape Verde, the French Communist Party, the Party of Democratic Socialism of Germany, the Communist Party of Greece, the PAIGC of Guinea Bissau, the Communist Refoundation Party of Italy, the FRELIMO Party of Mozambique, the Communist Party of Spain.
The great mass demonstration in which the funeral of comrade Alvaro Cunhal was transformed, constituted an important moment of recognisment of the inestimable value of his role on the struggle for liberty, democracy and socialism.
The International Department of Portuguese Communist Party
