On a trip to Lisbon after participating in the COP27 in Egypt, the president-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) met, on the night of this Friday (18), with the Prime Minister of Portugal, António Costa, and reinforced the environmental commitment of your future government.
He repeated the thesis that the country “returned to the international scene” after isolation under Jair Bolsonaro (PL), defending a closer relationship with the European country. “I’m proud to be here. We have to have a loving relationship with Portugal and I want Costa and [o presidente] Marcelo [Rebelo de Sousa] in my possession. Brazil has returned to normality,” he said at a press conference.
During the campaign for the second round of the Brazilian elections, the socialist premier recorded a video supporting the PT candidacy. Upon welcoming Lula and the future First Lady Rosângela da Silva, Janja, at the entrance to the official government residence, António Costa posed for the photographers making an L sign with his hand.
The two leaders had a meeting and later attended a dinner with Portuguese authorities and members of the PT entourage.
“I was very moved in Egypt, when the people shouted: ‘Brazil is back’. Because it had been four years since Brazil had been completely isolated from the world. Brazilian government itself,” he said, without quoting Bolsonaro. “It wasn’t the world that isolated Brazil. It was Brazil that isolated itself.”
Still according to the petista, the current president did not talk and did not insist on receiving anyone in the country. “Nobody wanted to visit Brazil because it behaved totally anti-Brazil and anti-democratic.”
At the press conference, the president-elect once again defended a reform of the UN Security Council, a comment that was echoed in Costa’s speeches, who celebrated the meeting.
Previously, Lula was received by President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa at the Belém Palace, headquarters of the Presidency. The meeting was brought forward by about half an hour to allow for a brief appearance by the president of Mozambique, Filipe Nyusi, who had had a meeting earlier with the Portuguese head of state.
After 15 minutes, the Mozambican leader left the place. Lula and Rebelo continued the conversation, which also had the participation of the former mayor of São Paulo Fernando Haddad, one of the names quoted for the Itamaraty, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Portugal, João Gomes Cravinho, for another hour and 15 minutes .
The meetings with the Portuguese authorities mark the PT’s first bilateral agenda abroad after participating in COP27, in Egypt.
In both meetings, there was a small concentration of demonstrators against Lula’s victory, but also supporters of the PT. The protests were peaceful, but there was something of a “scream battle” between the two sides.
In some moments of greater exaltation, the Portuguese police had to intervene to delimit a space for bolsonaristas and lulistas.
Before meeting the official agenda, Lula had lunch at the Cícero restaurant, in the upscale neighborhood of Campo de Ourique. The information that the president-elect was in the place spread before he finished the meal, and dozens of supporters gathered at the door of the establishment to greet the PT candidate.
The restaurant has economist Paulo Dalla Nora Macedo as one of its partners. The former banker, who was once a staunch supporter of the third way, participated in an intense mobilization to convince businessmen to embrace the PT campaign.
The establishment was closed to the entourage and a small group of guests, including the Minister of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) Gilmar Mendes.
Before returning to Brazil, Lula is going to meet, this Saturday morning (19), with representatives of Brazilian political and social movements in Portugal.
In both rounds, Lula beat Jair Bolsonaro (PL) in all three Portuguese cities where Brazilians voted.
Lula traveled aboard the same jet as businessman José Seripieri Filho, known as Júnior, founder of Qualicorp and owner of QSaúde, which also took him to Egypt.
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