1.
GV PAN DOWN Assembly building TO Guard of honour
0.05

2.
TV President Costa Gomes arrive, ZOOM TO Crowd applauding (2 shots)
0.22

3.
TV INTERIOR President Costa Gomes and party enter assembly hall
0.30

4.
LV Costa Gomes and Prime Minister Goncalves and Socialist President of Assembly Henrique Debarros walking to benches
0.35

5.
GV PAN OVER Assembly standing for national anthem, PAN TO Costa Gomes and Ministers
0.50

6.
TV Members seated
0.51

7.
SV Costa Gomes addressing opening session
0.58



Initials CL/2253 CL/2302



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: President Francisco Costa Games opened Portugal's first constituent assembly for half a century on Monday (2 June) with a moving address in which he appealed to the 250 deputies present to subordinate party interests to the greater one of the nation.

He spoke from behind a wall of red carnations ... the symbol of last year's bloodless revolution ... on the challenges facing the assembly in drafting Portugal's constitution.

What Portugal expected, he said, was a constitution that would guarantee government stability yet not limit "the revolutionary progressivism of the people and the armed forces."
Officers of the Portuguese Army, Navy and Airforce watched from the balconies of the National Assembly hall, in the presence of foreign ambassadors, including Mr. Arnold Kalinin of the Soviet Union and Mr. Frank Carlucci of the United States.

All present stood in silence in the elaborately decorated hall as a ceremonial band played the national anthem at the beginning and end of the short inaugural session.