Eduardo González
The President of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, has canceled his planned state visit to Spain next week after undergoing emergency surgery for a hernia, from which he is recovering well.
The 76-year-old president underwent emergency surgery at a hospital in Porto on Monday, December 1, after experiencing digestive discomfort upon returning from a trip. Rebelo de Sousa was discharged two days later, but doctors estimate that his recovery could take approximately two weeks.
For this reason, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa’s state visit to Spain, scheduled for December 11-13, has been postponed, and no new dates have been set, according to the Portuguese Embassy in Madrid, as reported by the Lusa news agency.
Had it taken place, it would have been Rebelo de Sousa’s second state visit to Spain. The first was in April 2018, reciprocating the visit made by the King and Queen in November 2016.
In any case, Rebelo de Sousa’s first visit to Spain, although not a state visit, took place in March 2016, two months after his inauguration, and was attended by the Spanish monarch. The Portuguese president traveled to Barcelona in 2017 to be with the King at the funeral services held at the Sagrada Familia for the victims of the jihadist attacks in the Catalan capital, and in February 2019, he went to Madrid to attend the presentation of the World Peace and Freedom Prize to the King, awarded by the World Association of Jurists.
On July 1, 2020, King Felipe VI and Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, along with their respective heads of government, Pedro Sánchez and António Costa, participated in the reopening ceremonies of the border between Spain and Portugal following the end of the state of emergency declared due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The events began at the Alcazaba of Badajoz and concluded in the Portuguese city of Elvas.
As he did during his first term, the Portuguese head of state visited Felipe VI in Madrid in March 2021, shortly after beginning his second five-year presidential term. Rebelo de Sousa traveled to Spain again in June 2021 to participate in the presentation of Spain and Portugal’s joint bid to host the 2030 FIFA World Cup at the Wanda Metropolitano Stadium in Madrid.
He also traveled to Spain in November 2021 to attend the 30th anniversary of the Ibero-American Summits in Madrid and the 14th COTEC meeting in Málaga, alongside King Felipe VI and the President of Italy.
Rebelo de Sousa returned to Madrid and Málaga in April 2022 to attend an event at the Cervantes Institute honoring the writer José Saramago and the opening of Paula Rego’s exhibition at the Picasso Museum. He visited the Monastery of Yuste (Cáceres) in September 2023 for the presentation of the 16th edition of the “Carlos V European Prize” to UN Secretary-General António Guterres by King Felipe VI.