President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) will receive the heart of d. Pedro 1º on the ramp of the Palácio do Planalto, in Brasília, on Tuesday (23), in a ceremony similar to that of a State visit.
The emperor’s organ will be taken by the police chief of Porto, where the heart is kept in a glass urn with formaldehyde. The Portuguese city was chosen by d. Peter 1st in will.
The heart was loaned to Brazil at the request of the Bolsonaro government and should remain at the Itamaraty Palace, in Brasília, until September 8, for the celebrations of the 200th anniversary of Brazilian Independence.
During the period, students, especially those from the public network, and the general public will be able to visit the hall at the Itamaraty dedicated to the exhibition of the organ. Visits need to be scheduled in advance.
An outline of the planning made by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs foresaw that the heart would also pass through the National Congress. However, according to ambassador George Monteiro Prata, one of the coordinators of the Independence Bicentennial Working Group, this is not foreseen.
The head of the Ceremonial of Itamaraty, Alan Coelho de Séllos, stated that the parliamentarians were invited to visit the room at the ministry. “The idea is to reproduce appropriate, scientifically appropriate circumstances for the relic conversation, with as little exposure to movement as possible,” he said.
The heart will arrive in Brasília this Monday (22), on a Brazilian Air Force flight with a landing scheduled for 9:30 am. Then, you will be taken to Itamaraty. The next day, the organ will be received by Bolsonaro. Authorities, such as the presidents of the Chamber and Senate, as well as ministers, were invited.
National anthems and independence anthems are to be played at the event, and Bolsonaro will speak as a salute to a head of state and also as part of the opening of the bicentennial celebrations. “The heart will be treated as if D. Pedro 1º were alive. Therefore, it will be the object of all the measures that are usually attributed to an official visit, a state visit”, stated Séllos.
A ceremony is also planned on September 6 with heads of state from Portuguese-speaking countries, with the confirmed presence of the president of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
When questioned, the Itamaraty said it had no forecast of costs to make transporting the Emperor’s heart viable. “The FAB plane is like a car. It needs to be used. If it wasn’t being used now to go to Porto, it would be being used to go somewhere else. Pilots need training. Extra costs are small. I wouldn’t know need”, stated the Silver ambassador.
Portuguese authorities asked the Brazilian government that the heart of d. Pedro 1º did not stay on a pilgrimage across the country and was exposed in just one city. “We asked that the heart not move from city to city. Another aspect we asked for was the utmost care with safety,” he told Sheet Vasco Ribeiro, chief of staff to the mayor of Porto, Rui Moreira.
“The entire process of transporting and protecting the heart in the act of exhibition was discussed. It is a common concern [de Portugal e Brasil]. We also asked that the heart be here in time for us to celebrate the death of Dom Pedro, on September 24th, and Itamaraty suggested that he come on the 8th.”
According to Ribeiro, the heart will be exposed in Brazil in an urn designed exclusively for that purpose. The Itamaraty also informed the Portuguese authorities that it will place metal detectors at the entrance to the salon. The transport of the Emperor’s heart takes place amid coup threats from the President of the Republic, who is trying to use the civic movement to demonstrate popular support before the elections.
Bolsonaro’s political use of the coming of the heart has been criticized. In 1972, the military dictatorship brought Dom Pedro’s remains to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Independence. Since then, the emperor’s bones are in the Ipiranga Museum, in São Paulo.
