Portugal’s prime minister said on Friday that “Portugal already misses Brazil very much” and thanked Brazilian President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva for choosing the country as the destination of his first bilateral trip.
“Portugal missed Brazil very much, we hadn’t been together for a long time. And personally I missed President Lula very much,” said António Costa in the opening statement after meeting Lula da Silva, in São Bento, Lisbon. .
“We have to regain the lost time, the time we were apart and we have a lot to do together,” the head of the Portuguese executive added.
In the presence of the journalists, and together with Lula da Silva, António Costa thanked the Brazilian president-elect “for choosing Portugal as his first bilateral trip after his election and even before taking office”.
“The world missed Brazil greatly, it needed Brazil to return to defending the values of democracy, fighting climate change, defending the environment, what is the protection and defense of culture,” he underlined.
The head of the Portuguese executive recalled that “this year we celebrate 200 years of independence from Brazil” as it is “a very beautiful story, a fantastic country and a country where Portugal is proud to be a brother, to be friends “, and with whom he “wants to build the future together”.
“I’m sure from January 1st next [data da tomada de posse de Lula da Silva como presidente brasileiro]we will have Brazil close to us again and we will continue this journey that we started 200 years ago between two independent homelands that we had in common for a few centuries,” he said.
In a speech to Brazil’s president-elect, António Costa said: “President Lula, thank you very much for your visit. Let’s continue”.
Earlier, upon arrival in the room where the press conference took place, Costa apologized to journalists for the wait – the meeting with Lula lasted more than an hour and was initially scheduled to last 30 minutes.
“The conversation started, it ran, and we didn’t notice the passing of the hours,” he said between laughs.
After this press conference, Lula da Silva and António Costa have dinner, accompanied by their wives.
Lula da Silva arrived at the prime minister’s official residence at 8 p.m., accompanied by his wife Janja, while the leader of the Portuguese government and his wife, Fernanda Tadeu, waited for him.
In São Bento, the two couples are now having dinner after a short meeting.
Brazil’s president-elect is visiting Portugal after attending the 27th UN Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who has already served two terms as Brazil’s president between 2003 and 2011, was re-elected on October 30 in the second round of the Brazilian presidential election, with 50.9% of the vote. Brazilian incumbent, Jair Bolsonaro.
As general secretary of the PS, António Costa expressed his support for Lula da Silva’s candidacy in the Brazilian presidential election.
Source: DN
