Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said on Monday that he sees no reason for “take away“gives”clear leadershipIn foreign policy, giving priority to Portuguese-speaking “brotherly” countries, justifying a visit to Guinea-Bissau despite protests.
This position was taken by the head of state at the Presidential Palace in Praia as part of a several-hour visit that Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa is making to Cape Verde, before continuing his afternoon trip with an official visit to Guinea. – Bissau, contested by the Guineans in the diaspora, claiming it legitimizes the leadership of Umaro Sissoko Embalo, president since 2020.
“I saw no reason to leave What is the clear orientation of our foreign policy and the priority that we give to the Portuguese-speaking brotherly states, obviously taking different points of view, ”said Rebelo de Sousa, when asked by Luz about the protests against the visit.
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Several dozen Guineans living in Portugal demonstrated on Friday against the visit of the Portuguese President to Guinea-Bissau, this Monday and Tuesday, which they see as a way for Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa to show that he is near “swindler“.
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“About President Marcelo [Rebelo de Sousa] not welcome in Guinea-Bissau“Portugal adheres to a dictatorship” are some of the messages that the protesters wrote and displayed on posters in the Belém Gardens in front of the official residence of the President of the Republic and which are expected again. Tuesday.
In Praia, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa recalled that the presidential elections in Guinea-Bissau, held at the end of 2019, were accompanied by international missions, namely the European Union, which understood “to recognize these elections as legal.”
“Therefore, this international decision was, of course, present and present in the position of the President of the Portuguese Republic,” said Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, explaining that he had come to establish contacts with some of the demonstrators in Belem.
I explained that in Portugal the expression of thought is completely free, this expression and this point of view is completely legal. So legal that the President of the Portuguese Republic was there to talk to them. And I just won’t be there tomorrow [terça-feira]because I will be in Bissau, ”he said.
And he recalled that there is “common historyBetween countries since independence by former Portuguese colonies, strengthened by the creation of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP): “Reaffirming the principles that we all want to build despite the complexity of construction, democratic rule of law, separation of powers, respect for fundamental rights, but at the same time it is a story of mutual respect in relation to the sovereign capabilities of each state. “
“This is happening in Portugal’s foreign policy in general. We have relations, in terms of state visits or official visits, with states that do not quite correspond to what we have constitutionally in terms of political regime, economic regime or social regime, ”he said.
The Portuguese president added that “the same leadership position justifies” why his predecessors, without exception, “maintained” relations with these brotherly states, regardless of the decisions taken at every moment. “
And, naturally, recognizing that reciprocity is true, which the fraternal states supported with Portugal, even when they did not agree with the Portuguese position, ”he stressed.
He did not fail to note that this position was at the heart of the visit of President Umaro Sissoko Embalo to Lisbon in October last year, but without realizing it. “these manifestations of displeasure“.
“I saw no reason to move away from what is the clear orientation of our foreign policy and the priority that we give to the brotherly Portuguese-speaking states, clearly taking different points of view, I must say that some of them are expressed by former political leaders who are in Portugal, and whose visit to Portugal was calculated on the intervention of the President of the Portuguese Republic and the government of Portugal, but the fact remains: we respect diversity, “insisted Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
The head of state recalled that as a professor of law and then president of the SDP, he maintained close relations with the various regimes that ruled Guinea-Bissau, which he now visits for the first time as President of the Republic, 31 years and six months after Mario Soares, the last president of Portugal. , who made an official visit to this country in 1989.
The Portuguese line has always been to always look for ways of merging, building common principles, regardless of differences and divergences that may arise between regimes, between presidents or governments, ”he concluded.
