After meeting with former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) in São Paulo, the president of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, said he still does not know if Brazilian leader Jair Bolsonaro (PL) will keep the meeting scheduled with him for Monday in Brasilia.
Despite Bolsonaro having said on Friday (1) that he would cancel the meeting after learning that Rebelo would meet with Lula, officially the Portuguese delegation was not informed about a cancellation and the event remains on the agenda. Rebelo stated that if he does not receive confirmation about the meeting this Sunday afternoon, he will leave for a “plan B” and stay in São Paulo for another day.
“There was a written invitation, I accepted it in writing. I will stay on the original program”, he told the press after the meeting. “If there is no written confirmation by early afternoon, I will stay in São Paulo.”
The Portuguese president denied that the episode had generated a diplomatic incident between the two countries. “I would say, as head of state, that it has not changed anything, neither in my relationship with the Brazilian head of state, nor between the Portuguese state and the Brazilian state, nor in the relationship between the Portuguese people and the Brazilian people,” he said.
Asked if he did not foresee that the meeting with the PT, Bolsonaro’s main opponent in this year’s election, could generate discomfort, Rebelo said that the programming of his visit is cultural, that he had already met former presidents on other trips and that officially there is no electoral campaign in Brazil.
“Candidacies will only be on August 6. Therefore, there are no candidates. There is not even an election period.”
He said that he intends to return to Brazil in September and that, in that case, he would act differently. “The campaign will be running. Naturally, there will be a meeting, certainly with the President of the Republic.”
Rebelo stated that he did not discuss the issue with Lula or the Brazilian electoral campaign. According to him, the two talked about the Ukrainian War and its geopolitical and social impacts on the world and Latin America. Lula did not speak to journalists after the meeting, which took place at the Portuguese consul’s official residence in São Paulo.
After meeting Lula, Rebelo would visit the Book Biennial and meet former presidents Michel Temer (MDB) and Fernando Henrique Cardoso (PSDB).
According to Rebelo, if the lunch with Bolsonaro is canceled and he stays in São Paulo, he might reschedule the conversation with Fernando Henrique for Monday.
Before boarding for Brazil, at Lisbon airport, shortly after Bolsonaro said he would give up lunch with Rebelo, the Portuguese leader had stated that “it is not worth wasting a second on lunch when there is friendship between peoples”. “What matters is the friendship between peoples, not the connection between politicians”, he told the press, minutes before boarding for the celebration of the centenary of the first transatlantic flight between Portugal and Brazil.
“Whoever invites is who can decide whether or not to keep the lunch”, said Rebelo, who did not rule out a new lunch with Bolsonaro “in a few months, half a year”.
The Brazilian leader confirmed to CNN Brasil that the change in plans was due to an agenda that Rebelo would have with Lula, Bolsonaro’s opponent in the elections.
As president, Rebelo is head of state in Portugal. The government command is exercised by the prime minister, the socialist António Costa. This is the second time that Rebelo has come to Brazil in less than a year – in July 2021, he participated in the reopening of the Museum of the Portuguese Language, in São Paulo.
Despite Portugal maintaining important economic, social and cultural ties with Brazil, relations between the leaders of the two countries remained distant during the Bolsonaro administration. The Brazilian president, for example, has not visited Portugal during his term so far — unlike all 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 aides arrived at Palácio da Alvorada wearing masks, while Bolsonaro dismissed the item.
