According to the Presidency of the Republic, over the eight editions, this initiative had nearly 170,000 visitors, with the highest number recorded this year, nearly 27,000.

"I bet on reading, and this was a winning bet," Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa told reporters in the gardens of Belém Palace in Lisbon, on the last of four days of this edition of the Book Festival, which concluded with a concert by Xutos & Pontapés.

The head of state gave a "very positive assessment" of this festival, with free admission, which he launched in 2016, saying that it "kept going up" after a "two-year hiatus" in 2020 and 2021, when it was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.


According to Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, Belém Palace will remain open to the public, no matter what, regardless of who succeeds after March 9th of next year: "That will continue, for sure. That's something that won't go back."

"The Portuguese people will choose their successor, and the successor will decide whether to do it this way, or something else, whether to do more music, more visual arts, more theater, or mix it with books," he predicted.

He then promised: "If books continue to be available, I'll be here to buy them, as I already do a lot today; if there's another type of cultural activity, I'll come here, like any citizen, to participate."