Portugal and Brazil, a relationship with past, present and future
There is an iconic phrase about Brazil, whose authorship is attributed to the then Minister of Economy in the Government of Fernando Henrique Cardoso: “in Brazil, even the past is uncertain.” This phrase was consolidated as an anthological phrase to characterize the permanent instability of the South American giant, and it is said that at its origin is a finding, by Pedro Malan’s team, that the accounts of the State were all wrong and, for decades, added been poorly done.
True or not, this phrase does not apply to the relationship between Portugal and Brazil. Among our countries, not only is the past not uncertain, but it is precisely this past that has built and solidified, over the years, a singular relationship of incomparable density with any other that Portugal maintains with foreign countries.
We have before us a unique opportunity to celebrate the past, celebrate the present and project the future of this relationship. On September 7th, the 200th anniversary of Brazil’s declaration of independence began, so portrayed in the famous Grito do Ipiranga, which made Brazil independent from Portugal. This was an independence with very special characteristics that not only did not make Portugal unfeasible but also made possible a united and powerful Brazil, which contrasts with its neighbors in terms of language and dimension.
The bicentennial party will be, and should be, first and foremost a Brazilian party. The very special bonds that unite Brazil and Portugal led Brazil to invite our country to join the celebrations. We will do it with great pleasure. The celebrations will be many and diverse. And they will involve institutions like this University where I am pleased to be speaking to you today.
We will certainly in the coming year honor our common past, and in doing so we will have a golden opportunity to celebrate the present and project the future.
Portugal and Brazil, like the world, have changed a lot in 200 years. Monarchies turned into republics, known distances shorter, democracy arrived.
It can be said that, with ups and downs, misunderstandings and clarifications, struggles and love affairs, our relationship has never lost the common thread that weaves together and serves as an anchor to cement the present and guarantee the future.
We should discount the many phrases made on both sides of the Atlantic, which were fed over time and according to the more or less good times that both countries were going through.
The truth is that never, not even in the less enlightened moments, has the relationship deteriorated to the point of endangering the structure that binds us. Because deep down, people are the ones who count, and people never turned their backs.
Ladies and gentlemen,
What state is our relationship in the present?
The year we are living in, unfortunately still atypical but already a path of normalization that we sorely lack, is being a year of remarkable strength for relations between Portugal and Brazil.
As soon as Portugal eased the restrictions on the entry of Brazilians into the country, we witnessed a real rush for airline tickets. In the first 27 days of September, more than 120 000 Brazilians entered Portugal. Regardless of these impressive numbers, which will mainly reflect the arrival of tourists and students, a Brazilian community in Portugal is today already the largest foreign community residing in Portugal.
As for Brazil, around one and a half million Portuguese, descendants and bi-nationals live and work there. Recent changes to the law that allow the acquisition of Portuguese nationality, making it more flexible, have triggered requests for nationality by Brazilian citizens.
In recent months, institutional comings and goings between the two countries have multiplied.
The highest moment was the visit of the President of the Republic of Portugal to Brazil at the end of July, accompanied by the Minister of State and Foreign Affairs, where he attended the reopening of the Museum of the Portuguese Language in São Paulo and met with the current and three former presidents of Brazil.
And other members of both Governments crossed the Atlantic. On the Brazilian side, the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Agriculture and Science and Technology. On the Portuguese side, the Secretaries of State for Internationalization, the Portuguese Communities and Deputy and Health.
Before the year ends, the Ministries of Health and Regional Development of Brazil should visit Portugal, as well as several other representatives of Brazilian institutions, such as the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies.
It’s no small thing.
But it is not, I dare say, the most relevant.
Why?
Because the bonds between people are growing stronger, in so many areas, of which I bring here some examples.
I have already talked about tourist travel and the strength of the two Communities, I will not repeat the importance they have for the present relationship.
Culture and language unite us. At the end of this year, there will be eight Chairs of Instituto Camões in Brazil. From North to South, for the first time a Camões Chair will be created at the Federal University of Paraná. Camões Cátedras, an extremely relevant instrument for research and investigation work on past and current themes related to Portugal, Brazil, and Portuguese-speaking Africa.
We will be together in two cultural and scientific celebrations that span the next year: the centenary of José Saramago’s birth, until today the only Nobel Prize in Portuguese-language literature, and the centenary of the first air crossing of the South Atlantic by Gago Coutinho and Sacadura Cabral .
The passion for football unites us. We have the two best teams in the world, Brazil with the most history, but Portugal gaining ground more recently. Hundreds, thousands of players, Brazilians known in Portugal, the country of their projection, and some a showcase that led them to international fame. In recent years, in particular, two Portuguese coaches have had success in Brazil. Jorge Jesus at Flamengo and Abel Ferreira at Palmeiras have already raised the Copa dos Libertadores da América, the equivalent of the European Champions League in the South American continent. And nobody forgets the success of Felipe Scolari’s passage to our senior team, which took us to the Euro final for the first time.
The taste for eating and drinking well joins us. Brazilians are unanimous in their assessment of Portuguese cuisine, including our wines and olive oils. This year, what was thought impossible years ago happened: Portugal surpassed Argentina in wine exports to Brazil, being today only surpassed in this chapter by Chile.
We find ourselves more and more in the economic and business area. The existence of 18 Portuguese Chambers of Commerce in Brazil, coordinated by a Federation, is essential to increase our capillarity in the country, to gain scale, and to make Portugal known to the different Brazils, the 27 states that make up Brazil with continental dimensions.
Each state is a different reality.
There is a lot of talk about São Paulo, also about Rio de Janeiro. Is well. But states like Minas Gerais or Bahia have more population than the whole of Portugal, a market that is very open to our country and opportunities. A state like Espírito Santo, in the south of Rio de Janeiro, has the electricity supply to more than 70 municipalities in the hands of EDP. And so on, as they say in Brazil. 27 states are 27 realities.
In other areas, such as education, agriculture, science and technology or defence, cooperation grows with each passing day. Very interesting projects and are born between public or private institutions,
The partnership between Embraer and Ogma is bearing fruit through, for example, the construction of parts for the KC 390 transport and cargo plane. A few days ago I had the privilege of witnessing the first flight of a crew of our Air Force in this very modern Brazilian plane .
Universities profile partnerships and exchange students and researchers at a sustained and increasing pace. There is no Brazilian University where I go that does not refer to ongoing cooperation or desire to cooperate with Portuguese Universities. This prestigious University of Coimbra is an example. Rare is the Brazilian I speak to, especially in the legal area, who doesn’t say to me almost immediately: “studying in Portugal, oh, studying in Portugal is Coimbra”, or “I studied in Coimbra and I want my son or daughter to study there too”.
Ladies and gentlemen,
And the future? Does this relationship between Portugal and Brazil have a future?
The answer can only be an enthusiastic and emphatic yes.
What we sow bears fruit, and the areas I mentioned above, among others, guarantee a robust future for our bilateral relationship.
I want to talk to you now about an area that we augur for a particularly significant future.
The health area.
Exactly two weeks ago, in Brasília, in the presence of members of the Governments of Portugal and Brazil, the brand Portugal health in Brazil was born.
What does this mean?
Basically, to network a set of Portuguese institutions in the area of high health in Brazil for over a hundred years, the Portuguese Government in the areas of Foreign Affairs and Health, and the Santa Casa da Misericórdia of Lisbon.
A network with enormous potential to grow and prosper, where we want to value the work of centenary institutions that in Brazil play a major role in assisting our communities and all those who seek their services.
By strengthening ties in the health area, joining efforts between governments, establishment and recognized in the area of social assistance such as Santa Casa da Misericórdia in Lisbon and the Portuguese-based charity hospitals in Brazil, we will be providing an invaluable service to our communities and also a structure of cooperation between institutions and public institutions, and our companies in the health area, possibilities for a significant part of the Brazilian hospital network.
I cannot find, at this time when so much is said about international cooperation in health, a so-called health diplomacy, a better example to illustrate the future of the relationship between Portugal and Brazil.
Dear Students,
I will end by returning to Coimbra, this university whose collaboration with Brazil has a past, present and future. José Bonifácio was a lens here. The University of Coimbra was of great training in the formation of the elite that led Brazil to independence.
At present, what better example than the donation of the university to the national museum of Brazil, a happy moment we are witnessing today, being the first Portuguese institution to donate pieces for the reconstruction of the museum admirably directed by Professor Alexander Kellner?
With a past and a present of this magnitude, the future is guaranteed.
Let the institutions of both countries know how to live up to the formidable will of the people who, from Fortaleza to Sines, from Rio de Janeiro to Lisbon or from Minas Gerais to Braga, increasingly cross the bridge that joins the two sides of the Atlantic and, polyglots in the language, make every day stronger and more unbreakable of the bonds that unite us.
Thank you very much.
Ambassador of Portugal in Brazil
Text of the lecture on October 29 at the University of Coimbra