The President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, and the Prime Minister, António Costa, will be together in South Africa this Wednesday to celebrate Portugal Day with Portuguese emigrants and Portuguese descendants in Johannesburg and Pretoria.
António Costa arrived in Johannesburg on Tuesday evening, coming from Angola, while Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa has been in South Africa since Monday, the day he started celebrating the Day of Portugal, Camões and Portuguese Communities, in Cape Town.
The first item on the agenda of the head of state and prime minister this morning is a visit to the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg.
Afterwards, the two and the rest of the entourage – including MPs from the PS, PSD, Chega, Iniciativa Liberal and PCP – will have lunch with the Portuguese community in Johannesburg.
In the afternoon, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and António Costa meet students at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.
The joint celebration program for Portugal Day in South Africa will conclude with a meeting with the Portuguese community in Pretoria.
The current model of double celebration of June 10, in Portugal and abroad, was launched by Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa in the year of his inauguration, 2016, in collaboration with the Prime Minister, António Costa. The first edition was between Lisbon and Paris.
In 2022, António Costa did not participate in the ceremonies for health reasons, which took place in Braga and London.
This year’s edition comes at a time when the Prime Minister and President of the Republic have publicly distanced themselves from keeping João Galamba as Infrastructure Minister, following incidents involving his cabinet.
Military ceremony on June 10 takes place in Peso da Régua
Unlike previous years, this time the June 10 commemorations started abroad, five days before the official date, and will end in Portugal, in Peso da Régua, district of Vila Real, where the military ceremony will take place on June 10.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, João Gomes Cravinho, traveled to South Africa with the Prime Minister of Angola, while the Minister of Defense, Helena Carreiras, and the Secretary of State for Portuguese Communities, Paulo Cafôfo, arrived with the President of the Republic.
Also part of the Head of State delegation is the President of the Regional Government of Madeira, Miguel Albuquerque, where many of the Portuguese and Portuguese descendants living in South Africa come from, the Mayor of Peso da Régua, José Manuel Gonçalves, and the president of the June 10 organizing committee, the oenologist João Nicolau de Almeida.
The consular registrations of Portuguese nationals in South Africa are about one hundred thousand. As for the total number of Portuguese residents living in this country, there are varying estimates, which vary between 200,000 and 450,000, including Portuguese descendants.
Source: DN
