The Mário Soares and Maria Barroso Foundation is looking to hire an Archivist to join its team in Lisbon.

Applications must be sent by 28 February 2025, by email to <a href="mailto:geral@fmsoaresbarroso.pt">geral@fmsoaresbarroso.pt</a>, with the subject line ‘FMSMB competition - Archivist’, attaching a curriculum vitae, certificate of qualifications and letter of motivation.<br>

For more information, see the recruitment <a href="https://fmsoaresbarroso.pt/uploads/FMSMB_Recrutamento_Arquivista_2025_02_20_c4feee8605.pdf">notice</a>.

Job position at the Mário Soares and Maria Barroso Foundation - archivist

The award ceremony for the Mário Soares-Fundação EDP 2024 Award took place on 30 January at 6pm in the Foundation's auditorium.

Isabel Soares, President of the Mário Soares and Maria Barroso Foundation, opened the session by highlighting the historical importance of the Award and emphasising its impact on academia. Over the 26 editions that have been held, 29 Prizes and 42 Honourable Mentions have been awarded.

José Manuel dos Santos, Director and Cultural Director of the EDP Foundation, patron of the Award, emphasised the central importance of history in Mário Soares' thinking and actions, along with politics, literature and the arts, which were fundamental pillars of his life.

The first prize was awarded to the doctoral thesis ‘Escaping the War and the Holocaust through Portugal: refugees in the “fixed residence” areas of the Centre region (1940-1946)’, by Carolina Pereira Henriques. Carolina Henriques Pereira's thesis, developed at the Faculty of Letters of the University of Coimbra, makes an important contribution to understanding the presence of refugees in Portugal during the Second World War, highlighting their concentration, by decision of the regime, in thermal and bathing resorts in the Centre region of the country.

An honourable mention was also awarded to the work ‘História da UNITA: da Fundação ao Acordo de Alvor (1966-1975)’, by João Fusco Ribeiro, the result of his doctoral thesis in Contemporary History at the University of Évora. 

The ceremony also included a debate with former winners of the Award, such as political scientist Marina Costa Lobo and historian Pedro Aires Oliveira, as well as this year's winner, Carolina Pereira Henriques. The moderator was journalist Pedro Jorge Castro.

You can watch the recording of the session in the video below.

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Mário Soares-EDP Foundation 2024 Award Ceremony

The Assembly of the Republic has established the Mário Soares Award for Freedom and Democracy (Resolution no. 5/2025 of 14 January).

Approved unanimously, the Award aims to recognise informative, educational or pedagogical works centred on the values defended and practised by Mário Soares, which promote the formation of public opinion on the importance of free and independent thought and which contribute to a fairer, more democratic and pluralistic society.

Aimed at national or foreign citizens and NGOs, the award is worth €25,000. It will be granted annually on 7 December, the day of Mário Soares' birth.

The Jury will work with the Constitutional Affairs, Rights, Freedoms and Guarantees Committee and will be made up of one MP from each Parliamentary Group, representatives of the Academy, the Mário Soares and Maria Barroso Foundation or other organisations.

Establishment of the Mário Soares Freedom and Democracy Prize

Please be advised that the <a href="http://casacomum.org/cc/arquivos">Casa Comum</a> digital platform will be subject to a scheduled interruption for maintenance during the following period: 16th January (23:00) to 17th January (09:00). During this time, the service will be unavailable.

If you have any questions, please contact us at <a href="mailto:geral@fmsoaresbarroso.pt">geral@fmsoaresbarroso.pt</a>.

Scheduled interruption in the Casa Comum

The Foundation has opened a call for applications for 1 Research Grant for a Graduate, within the scope of the project ‘Ordinary Voices: organisation and study of the correspondence between citizens and Mário Soares during the transition to Portuguese democracy (1974-1978)’, funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology.

<b>Activities to be carried out by the scholarship holder:</b><br>

Applications should be sent to <a href="mailto:geral@fmsoaresbarroso.pt">geral@fmsoaresbarroso.pt</a> by 24 January.

For more information, see the competition notice available in <a href="https://fmsoaresbarroso.pt/uploads/FMSMB_Edital_BI_pt_2005b91b5c.pdf">Portuguese</a> and <a href="https://fmsoaresbarroso.pt/uploads/FMSMB_Edital_BI_en_76228433e2.pdf">English</a>.

Open call for a research fellow for the ‘Ordinary Voices’ project

The Mário Soares and Maria Barroso Foundation has seen the FREI (From Resistance to European Integration) project funded by the European Commission under the CERV (Citizenship, Equality, Rights and Values) programme, in the European Memory strand.

With a duration of 24 months and scheduled to start in the first half of 2025, the project brings together partners from five countries (Italy, Austria, Greece, Portugal and Romania) and aims to explore the historical transitions from totalitarianism to democracy, highlighting human rights and European integration.  

The project will involve young people between the ages of 18 and 29, who, with the support of experts, protagonists and witnesses and representatives of vulnerable groups, will debate and analyse national paths to democracy, based on the following themes:

Transnational meetings will be organised to explore the complexity and heterogeneity of European history, highlighting the common struggle for democracy and human rights. The Foundation will lead the activities in Portugal, organising two events, in Lisbon and Leiria, in 2025 and 2026.

Mário Soares and Maria Barroso Foundation project funded by the European programme Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values

Mário Soares' art and bibliophilia collection can be seen in the exhibition “The Salt of Democracy: Mário Soares and Culture”, which was inaugurated on 5 December at Casa de Serralves in Porto. As part of the celebrations for Mário Soares' centenary, the ceremony was attended by the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, the diplomatic corps accredited in Lisbon and the secretary-general of the Socialist Party, Pedro Nuno Santos. 

The guided tour of the exhibition showed how Mário Soares lived his whole life surrounded by art and culture and how this was inseparable from his fight for freedom and democracy. It thus shows ‘Soares’ inspiring intimacy with culture and those who create it through an anthological selection of works from his art (painting, drawing, sculpture, tapestry, engraving) and bibliophilia (rare books, first editions, manuscripts) collections’, according to the curators, José Manuel dos Santos and Pedro Marques Gomes.

The exhibition will be on show at Casa de Serralves until 1 June 2025 and its catalogue will be launched this January. 

Take a look at some of the moments that marked the opening in the image gallery.

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Inauguration of the exhibition ‘The Salt of Democracy: Mário Soares and Culture’

On the afternoon of 5 December, the Dr Mário Soares Urban Park, in the Lapa area of Porto, was inaugurated to mark the centenary of Mário Soares' birth.

The initiative, organised by Porto City Council, included speeches by the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, the Mayor, Rui Moreira, and Isabel Soares, Mário Soares' daughter, who spoke at the ceremony. The event also brought together family members and various prominent figures from civil society.

Described by the President of the Republic as a ‘hero of the future’ and considered by Rui Moreira as ‘the great figure of 20th century Portuguese politics’, Mário Soares was also honoured in this park with a bust. The piece, which was enlarged from an existing model at the Mário Soares and Maria Barroso Foundation, was designed by sculptor Lagoa Henriques.

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