Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa will visit Holland in December, between the 9th and 12th, which will be his twentieth state visit since he became President of the Republic.
The President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, plans to make a state visit to the Netherlands between December 9 and 12, according to a letter sent to Parliament.
In the letter he addressed on Friday to the president of the Assembly of the Republic, José Pedro Aguiar-Branco, the Head of State requested Parliament’s approval for this trip and also the indication of the deputies who could accompany him in this state. visit .
The kings of the Netherlands, William Alexander and Máxima, were in Portugal on a state visit in October 2017, at the invitation of Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
The kings of Holland visit Portugal in October
The President of the Republic visited The Hague in February 2022, for an exhibition by the painter Paula Rego, and on that occasion he was received by the monarch Willem-Alexandre at the Royal Palace Huis ten Bosch.
This will be the twentieth state visit of Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who recently postponed a trip to Estonia, also on a state visit.scheduled for October 7 and 10, taking into account budget negotiations.
His previous state visits were to Mozambique, Switzerland and Cuba, in 2016, Cape Verde, Senegal, Croatia, Luxembourg and Mexico, in 2017, Sao Tome and Principe, Greece, Egypt and Spain, in 2018, Angola, China, Costa de Ivory. and Italy, in 2019, India, in 2020, Ireland, in 2022, and Belgium, in 2023.
Seven years ago, when he received the kings of the Netherlands in Portugal, the President of the Republic expressed his hope that this visit – which coincided with a business mission focused on the aeronautical sector and renewable energies – would contribute to giving a “ new impetus” in bilateral relations, especially at the economic level.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said that, in political terms, the two countries converge “on essential issuessuch as the 2030 agenda, the oceans, climate change, migration, security and defense, membership in the European Union and NATO, multilateralism, cooperation, human rights.”
At a social level, he maintained that there is an “increasing closeness” between the respective peoples, “who today understand each other like never before, thanks to freedom of movement, the Erasmus program, the desire to get to know each other that has always characterized Portuguese and Dutch.”
Addressing the kings of the Netherlands, he added: “And that, in the case of your majesties, it also has a historical foundation, the result of the family ties that you have with Portugal and that come from the beginning of our nationality, our first, our second and fifth kings, all of the first dynasty.”
The consent of the Assembly of the Republic to the trip of the Head of State is a formality imposed by the Constitution, which establishes that the President of the Republic cannot be absent from the national territory without authorization from parliament.
Source: Observadora
