Portugal’s new president, António José Seguro, chooses Spain for his first international trip

Eduardo González The new Portuguese president, António José Seguro, will begin a two-day official visit to Spain this Sunday, April 19, where he will be received by King Felipe VI and Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. This is his first trip abroad since taking office on March 9. According to the Portuguese Presidency, Seguro will travel with his wife, Margarida Maldonado Freitas. In addition to the meetings with the King and Queen, which will take place this Monday at the Royal Palace, and with the Prime Minister, the Portuguese president will meet with young Portuguese citizens who work or study in Spain. "By choosing Spain as the destination for his first official visit abroad, the President of the Republic highlights the deep bonds of friendship, closeness, and cooperation that unite Portugal and Spain, as well as the unique nature of the bilateral relationship, which this visit seeks to consolidate and strengthen," the Presidency stated. King Felipe VI attended the inauguration of António José Seguro on March 9th. In his inaugural address, Seguro expressly thanked the Spanish monarch for his presence at the ceremony, which he said revealed the “deep friendship, closeness, and cooperation that unite Portugal and Spain.” “Your presence honors us and reinforces the foundations of deep friendship, closeness, and cooperation that unite Portugal and Spain,” Seguro stated in his speech. “I know that we both prefer roads to borders, the synergies that unite territories, unite people, and transform our proximity into a relationship of friendship and cooperation,” he continued. “The relationship between Portugal and Spain has demonstrated that it is possible to build lasting convergences when the desire for a shared destiny prevails, a desire that I renew here on behalf of Portugal,” he added. Born in 1962 and a former deputy prime minister under António Guterres (current UN Secretary-General), the socialist António José Seguro succeeds the conservative Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who is leaving the Presidency of the Portuguese Republic after ten years. King Felipe VI received Rebelo de Sousa in Madrid on February 20th, during his last official visit to Spain before stepping down. On February 8th, Seguro won a resounding victory in the second round of the presidential elections against the far-right candidate André Ventura. This is the most resounding victory achieved to date by a Portuguese president, since the socialist Mário Soares won 70 percent of the vote in the 1991 elections. King Felipe VI's attendance came just three days after the 36th Spanish-Portuguese Summit, held at the La Rábida Monastery in Palos de la Frontera (Huelva), Spain. The summit was chaired by Pedro Sánchez and Portuguese Prime Minister Luís Montenegro, and the governments of Spain and Portugal pledged to strengthen the fight against the impact of climate change on the Iberian Peninsula, including the prevention of extreme weather events such as floods, fires, and heat waves. They also advocated for the need to expand and modernize energy interconnections with the rest of Europe.

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