President-elect Lula (PT) landed this Friday (18) in Portugal for a two-day visit to the country, in which meetings are scheduled with the Portuguese president, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, and the country’s prime minister, António Costa. The petista landed at the military airport of Figo Maduro, in Lisbon, around 9 am 30 (Brasília time), after having participated in the Climate Summit (COP27), in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
After lunch with businessmen at a restaurant in the Portuguese capital, Lula met with the Portuguese president at his official residence, the Belém Palace, and later met with Prime Minister António Costa, who declared support for the PT during the elections. In Portugal, the visit of the new Brazilian president is seen as a symbol of the resumption of relations between the two countries.
The Luso-Brazilian “reconciliation” translated into the warm welcome that the President of Portugal , Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, gave Lula upon arrival at his official residence, the Belém Palace. The Portuguese head of state received Lula outside the building, where he got out of the car, a gesture he had not made two hours before for his meeting with the president of Mozambique, Filipe Nyusi.
In Belém , the Brazilian president-elect also held a meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Portugal, João Gomes Cravinho, with wide coverage by the local and foreign press, despite not having made any statements.
The presence of Lula at the Belém Palace provoked two simultaneous demonstrations at the doors of the residence of the Portuguese head of state. While supporters of the PT chanted in his favor, another group of Brazilians shouted “Lula thief, your place is in prison”. For the second day of his visit, the president-elect is also planning an act of approximation with the Brazilian community at the Instituto Universitário de Lisboa.
The Portuguese president visited Brazil last July, but the president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) refused to receive him when he learned that Rebelo de Sousa would also meet with Lula. Bolsonaro himself made no official visit to Portugal during his tenure as head of state, something unusual among Brazilian presidents.
