Relationship between Portugal and Brazil “is always exceptional” – Current Affairs
Upon arrival at the Itamaraty Palace, in Brasília, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa briefly addressed the media. 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, which was scheduled for 18:30 local time (22:30 in Lisbon) started about an hour late.
Jair Bolsonaro arrived at the Itamaraty Palace at 6:50 pm local time and before Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa was only received by the other two heads of state of countries from the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries (CPLP) present in Brasilia for these September 7 celebrations, Umaro Sissoco Embaló , from Guinea-Bissau, and José Maria Neves, from Cape Verde.
Also present at this bilateral meeting, on the Portuguese side, were the Secretary of State for Cooperation and Foreign Affairs, Francisco André, the head of the Military House of the President of the Republic, Vice Admiral Luís Sousa Pereira, a Secretary of the Council of State, Rita Magalhães Collaço, the Portuguese ambassador in Brasília, Luís Faro Ramos.
The President of Brazil was accompanied by his Foreign Minister, Carlos França, by the Secretaries for Strategic Affairs, Flávio Rocha, and for Europe, Africa and the Middle East, Kenneth Nóbrega, and by the Brazilian Ambassador to Portugal, Raimundo Carreiro.
In July, Jair Bolsonaro canceled a lunch to which he had invited Marcel Rebelo de Sousa, in Brasília, a decision that was made public by the Brazilian media and justified by the fact that the Portuguese President had met earlier in São Paulo with the former head of Lula da Silva State.
The celebrations of Brazil’s independence take place when the bicentennial of Brazil’s independence takes place when the official campaign for the two Brazilian presidential elections in October, with an eventual second round in which the candidates are, among others, Jair Bolsonaro and Lula da Silva .
Augusto Santos Silva, the second figure of the Portuguese State, will also be in Brasília for the celebrations of the bicentennial of the independence of Brazil, an invitation to the president of the Brazilian Federal Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa remains in Brazil until Friday, also visiting Rio de Janeiro.
The President of the Republic was in Brazil for months, between the 2nd and the 4th of July, to mark the centenary of the first air crossing of the South Atlantic, in Rio de Janeiro, and for the inauguration of the São Paulo Book Biennial, which had Portugal as its country honored.
The program of this visit would end in Brasília, with a lunch with the President of Brazil, which was canceled by Jair Bolsonaro.
Faced with attitude to attitude, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa started with his program, gave up a written communication, and then went to Brasília, but always double-dramatizing this episode its impact on late relationships.
At the same time, Brazil returned in September to commemorate the bicentennial of independence: “The Senate already respects me, invited for me to be the speaker. But come with me the president of parliament english [Augusto Santos Silva]and the Government will come with me, to show that the organs of fundamental sovereignty are all here at that moment”, he declared at the time.