April 25: Lula da Silva participates in dinner at the residence of the Embassy of Portugal in Brazil

The President of Brazil, Lula da Silva, is scheduled to participate in a dinner commemorating the 50th anniversary of the 25th of April at the official residence of the Embassy of Portugal in Brasília.

The information was provided to Lusa today by an official source from the Brazilian Plateau.

On April 11, also in statements to Lusa, official Brazilian sources indicated that the Brazilian President would not be present in Portugal at the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of April 25th in parliament, with Brazil expected to be represented by the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Brazil’s Foreign Minister, Mauro Vieira, will thus represent Brazil in place of the Brazilian head of state who was present at the Assembly of the Republic on April 25 last year, in an event shrouded in controversy.

In February 2023, the then Minister of Foreign Affairs, João Gomes Cravinho, during a trip to Brasília, announced that Lula da Silva would speak at the solemn session marking the 49th anniversary of the celebration of the Carnation Revolution.

However, after criticism from the majority of the Portuguese parliamentary benches and the, at the time, president of the Assembly of the Republic, Augusto Santos Silva, having stated that this decision would be taken after hearing the conference of leaders, the Brazilian head of state did not speak, nor was he present at the formal session on April 25th.

Instead, a welcome session for Lula da Silva was held that same day at the Assembly of the Republic, which preceded the formal session on the 25th of April and was marked by a protest from the Chega party during the President’s speech. Brazilian.

Lula da Silva devalued the protest, considering that “when people don’t have something good to show” they make “this ridiculous scene”, a “cardboard”.

“I sometimes regret it because when people don’t have something good to do, to show up, people make this ridiculous scene. I honestly don’t know how these people are going to get home, look at their children, their parents and say that they were at the assembly”, he stated.

In turn, the president of the Portuguese Assembly of the Republic warned that “no more insults and putting shame on the name of Portugal”, after deputies from the party led by André Ventura raised posters during the Brazilian head of state’s speech.

Lula da Silva was in Portugal between April 21st and 25th, to participate in the summit between the two States and to sign Chico Buarque’s 2019 Camões Prize diploma.

This year, the heads of state of Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, São Tomé and Príncipe, Portuguese-speaking African countries (PALOP), and Timor-Leste will participate in Lisbon in a session reminiscent of the 25th of April .