Portugal’s Marcelo celebrates Portugal Day with Portuguese diaspora
Every year, the Portuguese president travels to a different country to celebrate Portugal Day with the Portuguese diaspora.
President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa of Portugal inaugurated the celebrations for Portugal/Camões/Portuguese Communities Day in SA at the Turffontein Portuguese Hall on June 7.
The day saw the participation of Prime Minister António Costa, who travelled in from his state visit to Angola, and Foreign Minister Joo Gomes Cravinho.
The Portuguese president also visited Cape Town and Pretoria to celebrate the day.
The president travels to a different country to celebrate Portugal Day with the Portuguese diaspora. The celebrations were postponed in SA three years ago due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Several members of the Portuguese parliament accompanied Marcelo, including a representative from Chega (Portuguese pronunciation: officially stylised as CHEGA! ‘Enough’). The party was recently “banned from foreign visits” by the parliamentary speaker of Portugal, Augusto Santos Silva.
The idea for this year’s commemorations for Portugal Day (June 10) started abroad and culminated ‘at home’ with a military ceremony in Peso da Régua.
According to the Observatory of Emigration, the number of Portuguese consular entries in South Africa is about 100 000. As for the total number of Portuguese people living in the country, there are varying estimates, ranging from 200 000 to 450 000, including Portuguese descendants. (Many Portuguese came to SA from the former colonies of Angola and Mozambique.)
The last time a Portuguese president visited SA was in December 2013, when Anbal Cavaco Silva travelled to Johannesburg for the funeral of Nelson Mandela.
