President of Portugal meets Lula – 07/03/2022 – World
After meeting with former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) in São Paulo, the president of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, said this Sunday (3) that he still does not know if the Brazilian leader, Jair Bolsonaro (PL) , will keep the appointment with him for this second meeting, in Brasília.
Although Bolsonaro’s event took place this Friday that would cancel the saber that Rebelo would meet with Lula Portuguese was not published after the cancellation, the meeting remains on the agenda.
Rebelo, in the country for the celebration of the first centenary of the Portugal-Brazil transatlantic flight, said he will not receive a confirmation until the afternoon, based on a “plan B” and will stay another day in São Paulo.
“There was a written invitation, I accepted it in writing. I will stay on the original program,” he told the press. A little later, which is rescheduling the agenda in case the meeting with Bolsonaro will not be confirmed. “If there is no written confirmation by early afternoon, I will stay in São Paulo.”
Rebelo stated that he did not discuss the issue with Lula, nor with the electoral campaign in Brazil. According to him, both talked about the Ukrainian War and its geopolitical and social impacts on the world. PT did not make any statements after the meeting, held at the official residence of the Portuguese consul.
The English country that the country had a diplomatic incident. “As head of state, it did not change anything in my relationship with the head of the Brazilian state, nor between the Portuguese state and the state, nor in the relationship between the Portuguese and Brazilian peoples.”
Asked if he had not foreseen that the meeting with Lula – the main promotion of the current president in this year’s election – could generate a malaise, Rebelo said that he had already met former leaders on other trips and that he is officially visited there is no electoral campaign in the Brazil. “Candidacies will only be on August 6. Therefore, there are no candidates. There is not even an election period.”
Rebelo of its president that is its meeting with position of its government to the Brazilian election. “I spoke with former President Lula as I had spoken a year ago. I will speak with [Michel] Temer, Fernando Henrique [Cardoso]The former president told everyone who intends to return and that, in that case, he will act.
After the meeting with Lula, Rebelo would visit the Book Biennial and, as he announced, he would meet with former presidents Temer (MDB) and FHC (PSDB). According to the Portuguese leader, if the lunch with Bolsonaro is canceled and he stays in São Paulo, he might schedule a conversation with the toucan for Monday.
Before boarding to lose Brazil, at Lisbon airport, shortly after Bolsonaro said he would give up lunch, the Portuguese leader said that “it’s not worth a second with a lunch when there is friendship between peoples”. “Whoever invites is who can decide whether or not to keep the lunch”, said the Portuguese, who did not rule out a new lunch with Bolsonaro “in a few months, half a year”.
As president, Rebelo is Portugal’s head of state. The command of governor-elect is by the prime minister, António Costa. This is the second time he has come to Brazil in less than a year — in July 2021, participating in the reopening of the Museum of the Portuguese Language, in São Paulo.
Although Portugal remains distant, social and cultural with the two countries remain distant during the Bolsonaro administration. The Brazilian president, for example, has not visited Portugal so far — unlike all the leaders since redemocratization, with the exception of Itamar Franco.
Rebelo’s previous visit took place during an acute period of the pandemic, and the meeting had repercussions in the Portuguese press due to the difference in behavior of the two delegations. The Portuguese leader and his advisers arrived at Palácio da Alvorada wearing masks, while Bolsonaro dismissed the item.