On January 1, 2003, when Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and José Alencar took office, respectively as the 35th president and 23rd vice president of Brazil, the world was totally different from what it is today. So different that there are those who say that at that time Portugal was not even in Europe.
At the beginning of that first term, Cristiano Ronaldo’s country was still just Eusébio’s, in the land of the Web Summit they had lunch at Tavares Rico, and there were a third of today’s hotels in the Tagus region. This Portugal that Brazil loves today did not yet exist and, therefore, the possibilities for interaction between the two countries were totally different. Now the sky is the limit.
Portugal was a kind of Europe’s Argentina, an old and moldy country, dying of nostalgia for a past that was both colonialist and glorious. But today, two decades later, the country is a modern cosmopolitan capital where the most vibrant community abroad no longer feels in Buenos Aires, but in California.
Perhaps it was this new reality that made the president-elect and his entourage have lunch with friends at the Lisbon restaurant Cícero Bistrot, returning from Cairo, instead of passing through London, Rome or Paris. It’s just that the most distinguished Brazilians abroad today have a home in the Portuguese capital and a Portuguese passport.
20 years ago, those who landed in Lisbon still felt a great distance from Berlin, but today, so many distinguished people who live there think that the country is no longer even abroad. So much so that many believe that for the new government it will not make sense to think about promoting Brazil’s image abroad without considering Lisbon.
For them, institutions that are the flagship of Brazil’s image in the world would find in the Portuguese city of the seven hills the perfect place to inaugurate a new attitude in the Itamaraty’s choices. The most cited examples are BNDES and Apex.
Both had or still have a presence abroad, but neither of them is a reference for Brazil’s external affirmation. Until 2016, the BNDES was located in London, but today it is closed, and the Apex lives discreetly, without shine or glory, in Brussels, in the corridors of the European Union bureaucracy.
Aloizio Mercadante, the new BNDES strongman, has already said that he plans to open doors abroad again. But, after Brexit, won’t Lisbon be a more interesting location for the new BNDES Europe headquarters than the English capital?
The same thing applies to Apex. If Lisbon is simultaneously recognized as a platform where European investment in Brazil is discussed and a gateway for Brazilian investment in Europe, isn’t the Portuguese capital today the ideal location for the international headquarters for external promotion?
Today, so many VIPs and ministerial ministers live in Portugal that no one would be surprised if the new government chose Lisbon as the place to place the main representations of these organizations abroad. And it wouldn’t even be necessary to expatriate its leaders, because many already live there.
With a wealth of experience honed over 4+ years in journalism, I bring a seasoned voice to the world of news. Currently, I work as a freelance writer and editor, always seeking new opportunities to tell compelling stories in the field of world news.
