This change is due to “the very intense program of the French President”
France President Emmanuel Macron will be received at the Assembly of the Republic on the 27th, with a solemn welcome ceremony, with state honors, but without the speech session in plenary.
This change was communicated on Wednesday by the spokesman for the Leaders Conference, social democratic deputy Jorge Paulo Oliveira, justified “by conditioning” inherent to the program “Intense” of the State Visit to Portugal of the French President.
“On February 27, we will have a solemn ceremony of welcome to French President Emmanuel Macron. We are talking about a solemn ceremony and not a solemn session as it was initially foreseen, ”he said.
According to the leadership spokesman, this change is due to “the very intense program of the French President”.
“The ceremony will include several moments, with state honors, compliance with the Noble Hall of the Assembly of the Republic and also the meeting with the delegations. There are no interventions, ”he added.
From the initial program, the French head of state was expected to end his presence in Parliament with a speech in plenary. Rather, the President of the Assembly of the Republic would speak, José Pedro Aguiar-Branco, and representatives of each of the parliamentary groups.
“The difference now is that it will be transformed into a solemn welcome ceremony, which is a modality that is foreseen in the state protocol and suitable for the reception of a president of a foreign state. It will have the usual honors in this type of ceremonies, as well as a greeting session in the Noble Hall and a meeting of delegations in the living room of the President of the Assembly of the Republic, ”he said.
In the recent history of Franco-Portuguese relations, whenever a state visit was held from a President of France to Portugal there was also a solemn session with speeches in the Assembly of the Republic. This happened, with the state visits of François Mitterrand, Jacques Chirac, and Giscard D’Esing.
