After visiting Portugal still as president-elect, in November 2022, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) already has a date to return to the country of Camões. The petista will again be in Portuguese territory between April 22 and 25, 2023 for a state visit, in addition to participating in the Luso-Brazilian Summit, a high-level bilateral meeting between the two nations.
The information was announced by the Portuguese president, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, in conversation with journalists in Brasília, where he traveled precisely to participate in the inauguration ceremony of the new Brazilian head of government.
According to Rebelo de Sousa, Lula will be in Portugal at his invitation, in a visit that “culminates in the participation in the April 25 ceremony”, which celebrates the Carnation Revolution and the end of the dictatorship in the country, in 1974.
In addition to participating in the Luso-Brazilian Summit, which should take place every two years, but has not been held since 2016, Lula should also be present at the Camões award ceremony for Chico Buarque.
Winner of the highest literature award in Portuguese in 2019, the singer and writer suffered a kind of boycott by Jair Bolsonaro (PL), who refused to sign the diploma of the laureate.
The Portuguese president himself, by the way, collected controversies with Bolsonaro, who went so far as to uninvite him for lunch in July. Still, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa declined to comment, in Brasília, on the Brazilian president’s trip to the United States. The representative preferred to praise the good start of relations with the new government.
“I think a good tradition has been resumed, which was for the Brazilian president-elect to pass through Portugal on his first trip abroad”, said Rebelo de Sousa, referring to Lula’s visit to Lisbon, on November 18 and 19, after participating in COP27 in Egypt.
On the occasion, the PT member was received by the Portuguese president and also by the prime minister, the socialist António Costa. During the 24 hours he was in Portugal, Lula highlighted his desire to resume close relations with the European country.
In four years in office, Jair Bolsonaro has not made any official visit to Portugal.
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