Portugal’s head of state, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, said on Tuesday that he took advantage of a roughly 20-minute meeting with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro to tell the life story of D. Pedro.
According to Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, the bilateral meeting, which took place in the Itamaraty Palace in Brasília, “went very well, in line with 200 years of Brazilian history”, and made no mention of the campaign for the Presidency of the Republic of Brazil. .
“I took the opportunity to tell the story of D. Pedro, the life of D. Pedro. This was a good starting point,” he told journalists.
After the meeting with Bolsonaro, the Portuguese President visited the Itamaraty room where the heart of D. Pedro I of Brazil and IV of Portugal is exposed, preserved in formaldehyde and kept in a glass capsule, brought from Portugal for the commemorations of the bicentenary of Brazilian independence.
Before leaving the Itamaraty Palace, the headquarters of Brazil’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa then made statements to the media.
The Portuguese president referred to having told Bolsonaro that D. Pedro, “with less than 35 years of age, had been born and died in the same room in the palace of Queluz, had crossed the Atlantic more than once, had been emperor of Brazil, King of Portugal defeated a civil war and died of tuberculosis shortly after, with the throne in the hands of his daughter.”
According to Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, the meeting discussed “how Brazil has asserted itself over 200 years and what it represents today”.
“And I spoke, of course, I had to speak, about the weight of Brazilians in Portugal, who are on their way to 250,000 – which for 10 million inhabitants is a very significant weight,” he added.
When asked if they had not spoken about the ongoing election campaign in Brazil, for which the candidates include Jair Bolsonaro and Lula da Silva, the Portuguese head of state replied: “No, there was no talk. President of the Republic and so , we were not intend to talk about internal problems of one state or the other”.
“It would be incomprehensible” not to attend Brazil’s 200th anniversary
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa defended that “it would be incomprehensible” not to attend the celebration of 200 years of Brazilian independence and rejected the possibility of being associated with the Brazilian election campaign.
“These are two completely different things,” the Portuguese president claimed in statements to journalists at the Itamaraty Palace in Brasília, where he met for 20 minutes with his Brazilian counterpart, Jair Bolsonaro.
According to Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, “it would be incomprehensible if Portugal were not represented at the highest level in what is a unique historical moment in the lives of Brazil and Portugal”.
“It has nothing to do with what is happening in the internal life of countries, as it did not have when the president a hundred years ago [da República Portuguesa] António Jose de Almeida came here [por ocasião dos cem anos da independência do Brasil]at a difficult time in Portuguese political life and in Brazilian political life,” the head of state continued.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa framed his presence “at the level of the state”, which he distinguished from the “experience peculiar to political regimes and political systems at any time”.
On the other hand, he pointed out that the heads of state of Guinea-Bissau, Umaro Sissoco Embaló, and Cape Verde, José Maria Neves, are also in Brasilia for the celebration of the bicentenary of Brazilian independence, which were also received by Bolsonaro in the Itamaraty Palace. .
In his opinion, it would be “an irony of fate” that these representatives “of states also born of the Portuguese colonial empire” were at the commemorations of the 200th anniversary of Brazil “and the President of the Republic of the country that most connected was not with this fact”.
“Portugal, which at the time of the Empire had colonial rule over Brazil, has, by a unique coincidence in the history of the world, been the son of the King of Portugal who proclaimed Brazil’s independence and Brazil a Constitution, a rare thing at that time,” he said.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa mentioned as an additional reason for his presence the arrival from the heart of D. Pedro I of Brazil and IV of Portugal, especially for these commemorations, “a symbolic gesture that is unique”.
The relationship between Portugal and Brazil “is always exceptional”
Earlier, at the entrance of the meeting with Bolsonaro, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa believed that the relationship between Portugal and Brazil “is always exceptional”.
On arrival at the Itamaraty Palace in Brasília, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa briefly addressed the media. When asked what he expected from the meeting with Bolsonaro, he replied: “They are always good. [a relação entre] Portugal and Brazil is always exceptional”.
The meeting between the two heads of state, scheduled for 6:30 PM local time (10:30 PM in Lisbon), started about an hour late.
Jair Bolsonaro did not arrive at the Itamaraty Palace until 6:50 PM local time and before Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa received the other two Heads of State of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP) who were present in Brasilia for these September 7 commemorations, Umaro Sissoco Embaló , from Guinea-Bissau, and José Maria Neves, from Cape Verde.
The President of the Republic will participate in the celebration of the bicentenary of Brazil’s independence, where he will be between Tuesday and Friday, with a program in Brasília and Rio de Janeiro.
Augusto Santos Silva, the second figure in the Portuguese state, will also be in Brasília to celebrate the bicentenary of Brazilian independence, at the invitation of the President of the Brazilian Federal Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco.
These celebrations take place as the official campaign for the election of the President of the Federative Republic of Brazil gets underway, scheduled for October 2, with an eventual runoff on October 30, which will include Jair Bolsonaro and Lula da Silva, among others. candidates Silva.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa was in Brazil two months ago, between July 2 and 4, to visit Rio de Janeiro, where he celebrated the centenary of the first air crossing of the South Atlantic, and São Paulo, for the opening of the Book Biennale, which in this year’s edition was Portugal the honored country.
It was intended to end that visit in Brasilia with lunch with the president of Brazil, but Jair Bolsonaro informed the media that he would no longer receive him, a decision he justified by the fact that Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa had met. meet. beforehand with the former boss of the Brazilian state Lula da Silva in São Paulo.
Given Bolsonaro’s attitude, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa started holding his program, waiting for a written communication, and then gave up going to Brasília, but he always dedramatized this episode and its impact on bilateral relations.
At the same time, he took for granted his return to Brazil in September for the celebration of the 200th anniversary of independence: “The Senate has already invited me as a guest speaker. But the President of the Portuguese Parliament is coming with me. [Augusto Santos Silva]and the government will go with me to show that the sovereignty bodies will all be here at this fundamental moment,” he stated at the time.
Source: DN
