Portugal’s head of state, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, asked this Thursday before the Brazilian Congress that Brazil remains a “homeland of freedom, democracy, justice, dream, hope, unlimited reinvention, universal power”.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa spoke during a solemn session commemorating the 200th anniversary of Brazil’s independence, at the Brazilian National Congress in Brasília.
“We Portuguese, in Brazil and in you Brazilians, love that captivating, indomitable, stubbornly stubborn soul, which makes you different, which makes you unrepeatable in humanity”he added.
Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, was supposed to deliver the closing speech, but canceled his participation in this session in Congress and did not hear the intervention of Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who turned out to be the last.
The Portuguese president gave his speech essentially as a thank you to “dear Brazilian brothers” for their independence and for the nation they have built, and when speaking about the colonial past, he mentioned “slavery, exploitation and secular discrimination”.
“May Brazil live forever, may the fraternal friendship between Brazil and Portugal live forever, may the projection into the world of our largest speech and language community live forever, which in Brazil has the strongest support, the tireless pillar, the most eternal youth, the most perfect future. Thank you Brazil”he declared at the end of his speech.
Previously, the presidents of the Federal Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco, and of the Chamber of Deputies, Arthur Lira, as well as those responsible for the committees composed in the two Brazilian chambers for these celebrations, and the president of the Federal Supreme Court, Luiz Fux, spoke.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa introduced himself as a “Portuguese, humble servant of the will of the people, but also grandson, son and brother of Portuguese welcomed in Brazil, and father and grandfather of Brazilians” – has a Brazilian granddaughter and a son now with dual citizenship – and expressed his emotion during a speech at the Brazilian congress.
He pointed to Brazil as: “pioneering beacon for the independence of other brother states” former Portuguese colonies and as “the root” of the creation of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP), courtesy of the “more than 220 million speakers and singers of an even more universal language by the genius of Brazilian authors and singers”.
then called Writers like Mário de Andrade, Manuel Bandeira, João Cabral de Melo Neto, Carlos Drummond de Andrade, Vinicius de Moraes, Clarice Lispector, João Guimarães Rosa, Graciliano Ramos, Jorge Amado, Cecília Meireles, Mário Quintana, Monteiro Lobato, Lygia Fagundes “.
“And musicians like Heitor Villa-Lobos, Chiquinha Gonzaga, Ary Barroso, Cartola, Luiz Gonzaga, João Rubinato [mais conhecido por Adoniran Barbosa, o seu nome artístico]Dorival Caymmi, Tom Jobim, Baden Powell, Elis Regina or Cazuza – just to recall some of the many who have already left us”he added.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa also thanked Brazil for the “economic and institutional affirmation in the world” and for the “desire for inclusion”, which he chose as “the great challenge of our time”, which “outside the transitory cycles of any period or moment”.
According to him, Brazilians have the “ability to never give up, never resign, never take for granted what has yet to be achieved” and the Portuguese follow with “exciting pride” their successes and “dreams of more and better”.
The Portuguese president left messages of “strong and permanent affection” for Brazilian immigrants in Portugal and “sincere solidarity” with the Portuguese who emigrated to Brazil fleeing from “economic and social poverty or civil and political persecution”.
On the building of the Brazilian nation, he said that: “D. Pedro, eldest son of the King of Portugal D. João VI, declared independence” to express “so many struggles for the liberation of the domain for 322 years, since the original Brazilians met the Portuguese, then their leaders and their colonial empire”.
“Colonial empire that would give them language, decisive religious and cultural experiences, unique unity and dimension, and even temporarily the originality of a capital of an empire outside the capital of that empire. secular discriminations, so deep that they would not stop at both sides of the Atlantic with the purely historical appearance of D. Pedro”he added.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa recalled that the then President of Portugal, António José de Almeida, attended the centenary of Brazil’s independence in 1922 and read excerpts from his speech to the Brazilian Congress.
On that occasion, the Portuguese president thanked the Brazilians for “the favor” they had given Portugal with independence, as the Portuguese were “great inventors in the world”, but they were “a little bit exhausted and weakened”.
Brazilians would without independence “subject to the greed of adversaries and enemies who would arrange this or that plot”and as for the Portuguese António José de Almeida noted: “Without being able and obliged to keep them under our action, under our tutelage, we would have lost everything here: hospitality to our compatriots, preserving our traditions and more than that: that admirable language we speak”.
After quoting these passages, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa stated that he wanted to thank the Brazilians “even more than in 1922, over a long and rich road” to which the Portuguese “always have debts”.
This session was attended by the President of the Assembly of the Republic, Augusto Santos Silva, the second figure in the Portuguese State, and the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Communities, Francisco André.
Portuguese-Brazilian singer Fafá de Belém performed the national anthems of Brazil and Portugal and made it a point to greet and exclaim “President Marcelo dear” and the entire Portuguese-speaking community: “Long live Portugal, long live Brazil, long live our people”.
Source: DN
