João Gomes Cravinho’s announcement that Lula da Silva would speak at the April 25 parliamentary ceremony continues to overshadow the Brazilian president’s visit to Portugal. This Sunday PSD leader Luís Montenegro accused the foreign minister of committing an “unforgivable” and “unacceptable” blunder, intrude into the decision-making sphere of the Assembly of the Republic. “The government does not speak on behalf of parliament,” the Social Democratic president warned. The president of the republic also returned to the subject this weekend, saying he hoped the Brazilian head of state’s visit “will go well” and warned that “it cannot be partisan”. Meanwhile, there was a manifest reparation to the Secretary of State: “We must respect the competence of the Assembly of the Republic and the operation of the separation of powers”.
Last Thursday, João Gomes Cravinho announced in Brasilia that Lula da Silva would speak at the April 25 memorial event. “It is the first time that a foreign head of state has given a speech on that date,” he said at a press conference, flanked by Brazil’s foreign minister. The announcement immediately drew criticism from Chega and the Liberal Initiative. PSD and Bloco de Esquerda also came to underline that this is a decision and an announcement that belongs to the Assembly of the Republic and not to the executive. And the President of Parliament himself, Augusto Santos Silva, came to remind that setting the agenda is his decision, after hearing the representatives of the parties.
A “sensitive” diplomatic situation
Luís Montenegro is now demanding a solution to the – even diplomatic – problem created by Cravinho’s statements, defending that the Assembly of the Republic should receive the Brazilian head of state either on the eve or the day after April 25 – but not on Memorial Day. session of the revolution.
“What the Foreign Minister has done with the solemn session of April 25 in the Assembly of the Republic is regrettable, even an unforgivable blunder. The Foreign Minister has no right to speak on behalf of the Assembly of the Republic,” the PSD president accused. During the closing session of the 12th Europe University, Montenegro insisted that João Cravinho “has created a situation that, from a diplomatic point of view, is very sensitive”. “Whether you like Lula da Silva or not”, the Portuguese have “a duty to respect a head of state, whatever country he comes from, but even more so if it is a brother country like Brazil”, he stressed, quoted by the Lusa agency.
For the Social Democratic leader, the April 25 evocation is “made by the voice of the Portuguese people, expressed by their legitimate representatives who are the political parties” and is also the “voice of the Portuguese people, expressed by their maximum representative who has the legitimacy of the democratic vote, that is the president of the republic”, so it should not allow for the intervention of foreign heads of state. “It is not to despise our guest, on the contrary, I think he himself would never want his visit to Portugal to be marked by such confusion,” Montenegro stressed, calling on Augusto Santos Silva and the parties with parliamentary representation to to arrive at a “solution”, finding “enough space for President Lula to be received with dignity in the mother house of Portuguese democracy”, on April 24 or 26. In other words, outside of the solemn commemoration session of the 49th anniversary of April 25.
Visit “can’t be partisan”
After stating last Friday that he was not aware of the government’s intention to invite Lula da Silva to the commemoration ceremony on April 25, the President of the Republic also returned to the subject and stated that regardless of the decision of the The Assembly of the Republic will be “a good solution”.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa stressed that “it is necessary to respect the competence of the Assembly of the Republic and the operation of the separation of powers” the most important thing is that the visit of Lula da Silva – who will be on a state visit to Portugal and also participates in the Luso-Brazilian summit – is “going well” and that it is not tainted by political squabbles.
“It is important that, once the apologies are made, the misunderstandings are cleared up, that this is not the fundamental theme of President Lula da Silva’s visit,” the head of state warned on Saturday evening, adding that the visit by the Brazilian president “cannot be partisan, the object of an internal political quarrel in which those who do not like him for ideological reasons take one point of view and those who like him very much take another.
With Lusa
Source: DN
