Portuguese prime minister, Mário Soares, decorated Lopes with the Grand-Cross of the Order of the Infant (Grã-Cruz da Ordem do Infante).
In 1990 he got his Ph.D. and is today the president of the Instituto de História Contemporânea (Portugal's contemporary history institute), an historical consultant for the Mário Soares Foundation and the editor of História magazine.
Former President of Portugal, Mário Soares, bestowed on him the Order of the Infante for his contribution to literature in Portugal, while the city council of Lajes do Pico awarded him an Honorary Citizenship.
The Portuguese television channel RTP 2 broadcast a biographical documentary about his life, filmed in his last years, where Nobel laureate in Literature José Saramago, former Portuguese statesman Mário Soares, and Luiz Pacheco himself, among other figures, commented the writer's eccentric life and work.
In March 1968, Soares was arrested again by PIDE, and a military tribunal sentenced him to banishment in the colony of São Tomé in the Gulf of Guinea.
Mario | Super Mario Bros. | Mario Testino | Mario Vargas Llosa | Mario Lemieux | Mário Soares | Mario Lanza | Mario Botta | Mario Cuomo | Mario Andretti | Mario Monti | Mario del Monaco | Mario Batali | Mario Balotelli | Mario Winans | Mario Savio | Mario Puzo | Mario Bava | Mario Van Peebles | Mario Sorrenti | Mario Merz | Mário de Andrade | Mario Morales | Mario Martone | Mario Lopez | Mario Borghezio | Super Mario Bros. 2 | Super Mario Advance | Super Mario 64 | Mario Roatta |
Many famous social democrats from other countries have visited Bommersvik through the years, including Shimon Peres, Neil Kinnock, Willy Brandt, Trygve Bratteli, Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, Kalevi Sorsa, Mário Soares, François Mitterrand and Bruno Kreisky.
Present at the ceremony were representatives of various European royal and noble houses, President of the Republic Aníbal Cavaco Silva, Prime Minister Mário Soares, and President of the Assembly António Barbosa de Melo, among others.
Personalities like Mário Soares, Mário Sacramento, Octávio Pato, Júlio Pomar or Salgado Zenha were members of the Central Committee of the Juvenile MUD.
The re-election of the hugely popular Mário Soares was never in doubt, specially after the then-ruling PSD, led by prime-minister Aníbal Cavaco Silva announced its support.