President landed on Friday (April 21) in Lisbon; on April 25, he goes to Spain
The president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (PT) landed on Friday (21.Apr.2023) in Lisbon, starting an official visit to Portugal and Spain. Even before stepping onto Lusitanian lands, the Chief Executive was one of the topics most talked about by the Portuguese.
One of the controversies surrounding the visit concerns the date of reception of the Brazilian president at the Assembly of the Republic, the Portuguese parliament. Another concerns Lula’s statements about the war in Ukraine while he was in China and the United Arab Emirates.
Shortly before leaving Beijing for Abu Dhabi, on April 15, Lula said he was “I need the US to stop encouraging war”. Yet, “that the European Union starts talking about peace”. The next day, in the United Arab Emirates, the president said that war between Russia and Ukraine is fault of the 2 countries.
The statements were not well received both in Portugal and in other European countries. Questioned by journalists on Monday (April 17), the Portuguese president, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, tried to soften the criticism. He said he did not regret inviting Lula to visit Portugal and listed the history of Brazil’s positions on the war in Ukraine.
“The Brazilian position in the United Nations has been the same, alongside Portugal against the Russian Federation, which has not happened with other Portuguese-speaking countries”, declared Rebelo de Sousa. “If Brazil changes its position, it’s their choice, we have nothing to do with it, and Portugal maintains its position”, said the Portuguese. “Each country has its own foreign policy, if we agree, the better.”
The Foreign Affairs Spokesperson for the European Union, Peter Stano, he responded on Monday (April 17) Lula’s declarations. For him, the prolonging of the war is exclusively the fault of the Russians.
“In reference to the speeches of the Brazilian president, I would just like to remind you of some basic facts. Fact #1 is that Russia, and Russia alone, is responsible for unprovoked and illegitimate aggression against Ukraine. So there is no doubt about who is the aggressor and who is the victim.”he spoke.
Stano stated that the bloc and the US are helping Ukraine to exercise its legitimate right of self-defense and recalled that Brazil voted in favor of the resolution that condemns Moscow’s decision to invade the neighboring country and determines that the Kremlin withdraw all troops from Ukrainian territory.
Spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, John Kirbystated on Monday (April 17) that Lula “repeats Russian and Chinese propaganda like a parrot without looking at the facts”. Already Karine Jean-PierreSpokesperson for the President of the United States, Joe Biden, he spoke on Tuesday (April 18) that the White House received with surprise the statements.
“The tone was not one of neutrality. To suggest that the US and Europe are not interested in peace or that we bear responsibility for war is clearly wrong. Of course we want this war to end“, he spoke.
On Tuesday (18.Apr), Lula changed the speech. He said that Brazil “condemns the violation of the territorial integrity of Ukraine” and defends “a negotiated political solution to the conflict”. The president also defended the need to create a group of countries that “Try to sit at the table with both Ukraine and Russia to find peace”.
The Minister of the General Secretariat of the Presidency of the Republic, Márcio Macêdo, met on Friday (April 21) with representatives of the Ukrainian community in Portugal. During the meeting, held at the Brazilian Embassy in Lisbon, he received a letter addressed to Lula with the community’s position on the conflict.
“They delivered a letter requesting President Lula’s intervention in this conflict of Russia’s war against Ukraine and inviting President Lula to go to Ukraine. President Lula determined that he would receive and listen to them. And we talked in the sense and I explained well the position of the Brazilian government and President Lula”, Macêdo told journalists after the meeting.
“The vocation of Brazil and President Lula is for peace”, he said. “President Lula asked me, on his behalf, to sympathize with the pain of the families victimized by this war.”
Regarding the reactions of European countries to Lula’s statements, Macêdo said: “We respect the position of the European continent, of the countries that are somehow involved in the conflict, but Brazil’s position is one of neutrality for a very simple reason: if Brazil takes sides, on one side or the other, it loses political authority. of bringing peers and countries together to find a path to peace. This is President Lula’s feeling and this is Brazil’s tradition.”
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ASSEMBLY OF THE REPUBLIC
On February 23, in Brazil, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Portugal, João Gomes Cravinho, announced that the Brazilian president would address the Assembly of the Republic on April 25, during a solemn session in honor of the Carnation Revolution.
“It is the 1st time that a foreign head of state makes a speech on that date.”, he declared when speaking to journalists at Itamaraty, in Brasília.
The Portuguese parties reacted. The date is important for Portugal, as it marks the end of dictatorship in the country. Every year, the Portuguese march through the streets holding red carnations and chanting the verses of the song “Grandola, Vila Morena”, by José Afonso.
Around midnight on April 25, 1974, the song played on a radio station in Portugal. It was the password to indicate that the planned operation to end the Salazarist dictatorship was underway. Members of the MFA (Armed Forces Movement) moved to strategic locations to “take back” the country. The Portuguese gave carnations to the soldiers. The flowers were placed on the butts of rifles and used to name the uprising, which took place with almost no bloodshed.
Deputy André Ventura, leader of the radical right Chega party, he saidon February 24th, that the invitation for Lula to speak at the April 25th ceremony “embarrasses the majority of the Portuguese people” and is “a huge disrespect” for democracy in Portugal. The parliamentary leader of the IL (Liberal Initiative, on the right), Rui Rocha, declared that the party’s deputies would participate in the session, but would leave the plenary at the time of Lula’s speech.
Responding to criticism, Cravinhos stated that the Assembly of the Republicit is sovereign in the decisions it makes”.
The Parliament of Portugal vetoed, on March 1st, Lula’s speech at the celebration of the 25th of April. The solution found was to keep Lula’s reception and his speech on the date, but in a separate session.
The Brazilian president will be received by parliamentarians and will speak at 10:00 am in Lisbon (6:00 am in Brasilia). The formal session on the 25th of April is scheduled for 11:30 am local time (7:30 am in Brasilia). Once again, the decision was not well accepted by all parties. Some subtitles regretted the choice and said that Lula should be received in the Assembly in one day “only his”.
The most vocal in the criticism is Chega. The deputies of the acronym must be in the plenary, but Ventura promised “firm actions” – the party called for an act in social media for the morning of April 25, in front of the Assembly.
SCHEDULE
Lula’s official commitments in Portugal begin on Saturday (April 22). He participated in a ceremony at Praça do Império, in Lisbon, and visited the tomb of the Portuguese poet Luís Vaz de Camões, located in the Jerônimos Monastery.
Afterwards, he had a bilateral meeting with the Portuguese president, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, and will meet with the country’s prime minister, António Costa. The Brazilian delegation will also meet with ministers and authorities from Portugal.
Also on Saturday (April 22), Brazil and Portugal will sign memorandums of understanding in areas such as space cooperation, health, education, tourism, communication and audiovisual. The day will end with a dinner hosted by Rebelo de Sousa at Palácio da Ajuda.
On Monday (April 24), Lula talks to businessmen in Matosinhos, in the Porto region, in the morning. Return to Lisbon to visit the Ogma, aeronautics company portuguese.
The Brazilian president will still deliver the Camões Prize to Chico Buarque, won by the writer and composer in 2019. The ceremony is scheduled for 4 pm in Lisbon (12 pm in Brasília).
The following day, Lula participates in the session in his honor at the Assembly of the Republic. Then she leaves for Madrid.
Lula will stay in the Spanish capital until Wednesday (April 26). He will meet the King of Spain, Felipe VI, and the head of the Spanish government, Pedro Sánchez. Still must participate in a forum with entrepreneurs.
As in Portugal, the governments of Brazil and Spain will sign memorandums of understanding. Areas such as higher education, work, health, environment, climate change, energy transition, food, industry, sustainable production, mobility and transport, information and communication technologies.
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