Former president and prime minister, Mário Soares is to receive the Portuguese Society of Author’s Life and Career award, a statement from the association announced Tuesday.

The distinction was justified by the society “due to his activities as an author (…) and his contribution towards promoting culture in Portuguese public life, which unquestionably happened throughout his two mandates served as president of the Republic.”

Mário Soares, aged 84 and a stout republican, was a founder of the Socialist Party in 1973 while living in exile in Paris.

Mário Soares was prime minister on three occasions between 1976 and 1985 and president for two mandates between 1986 and 1996.

In 1991, he established the Mário Soares Foundation dedicated to Portuguese and international contemporary history.

(Photograph: João Relvas/Lusa)