The President of the Republic ruled out this Thursday that Lula da Silva’s trip to parliament during his visit to Portugal in April called into question relations between Portugal and Brazil, saying they were “very nice”.
Speaking to reporters at the Lisbon Tourism Exchange, which he is visiting with Brazil’s Minister of Tourism Daniela Carneiro, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa was asked if he was trying to “sweeten” Portugal-Brazil in his contact with the Brazilian minister. relationship after controversy involving Brazilian President Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva.
“Relations with Brazil are always sweet, always: Brazil is sweet, Portugal is sweet. And political and diplomatic relations are very sweet, I mean superlatives of sweet, they are very, very, very sweet and very good,” he replied. .
Parliament President Augusto Santos Silva announced this Wednesday that the Assembly of the Republic will organize a ceremonial meeting to welcome Brazilian President Lula da Silva, after the Foreign Minister announced that the Brazilian head of state will address the official meeting on 25 April.
Santos Silva also indicated that details, such as the date of the welcoming session where Lula da Silva will speak, have not yet been set.
Marcelo Rebelo de Souza said he had no doubt that “the visit of the President of Brazil to Portugal will be very successful” and expects that the program of this visit will be “very eventful and very diverse” with the awarding of the Camões Prize. musician Chico Buarca.
“Of course, we will have a high-level meeting between the government of Portugal and the government chaired by the president, who is the executive branch of Brazil, we will have some interesting and important contacts,” he stressed.
Asked if he hoped to reach a consensus on Lula da Silva’s speech in the Assembly of the Republic to prevent demonstrations, the head of state replied that “in a democracy there are always those who like it and those who don’t like it. “
“This is part of the logic of democracy, but there is one thing that stands above mere questions of parties, opinions, points of view, namely the relationship between the homeland and the states and therefore, when it comes to the relationship between Brazil and Portugal, Portugal and Brazil, between the head the Brazilian state and Portugal, the head of the Portuguese state and Brazil above all,” he said.
The President of the Republic made special mention of his visit to Brazil in July 2022, when he met with Lula da Silva, then a candidate in the Brazilian presidential election, which led the then head of the Brazilian state, Jair Bolsonaro, to cancel the meeting with Marcelo Rebelo de Souza.
“There were times when, during my stay in Brazil, a lot was said about the relations between countries, and yet they did not hear a word from my lips that would not always have meaning for Brazil and the Brazilian people.” , He said.
When asked who invited Lula da Silva to come to Portugal, the President of the Republic recalled that “he who invites the head of state to visit his state is the head of state.”
“So I invited the newly elected president to visit Portugal, and the moment that was found to be the maximum possible was that Portugal – since it was the first country that the president-elect visited before taking office – was the first country in Europe to visit in April,” he said.
The President of the Assembly of the Republic reported that his proposal to hold a solemn meeting to welcome Lula da Silva received a “very broad consensus” at the leaders’ conference and that only one party opposed it.
Subsequently, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa was asked what he thought of the decision of the Assembly of the Republic, to which he replied: “I still do not know the final version, but after talking with the President of the Parliament, I will say.”
“Let’s see how things are,” he stressed.
While visiting the BTL pavilions, journalists also asked the Brazilian Minister of Tourism about this dispute, but Daniela Carneiro replied that she did not follow this issue.
“President Lula is very experienced, he is a friend of all countries, he is getting closer, especially in terms of dialogue. Soon he will be here, always with the president. [português]. Let’s go together,” he said.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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