The Diplomat
The President of the Senate, Ander Gil, represented Spain at the inauguration of the President of Angola, João Lourenço, which took place yesterday in Luanda. Lourenço was re-elected on 24 August for a second term that will last until 2027.
The inauguration was attended by dignitaries from other countries, including the President of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa. The head of the Spanish government, Pedro Sánchez, who was invited to the event, delegated representation to the President of the Senate.
Last year, Sánchez had the opportunity to meet Lourenço twice, when he travelled to Luanda in April, and in September he received the Angolan president on an official visit to Spain. This has strengthened relations between the two countries, which, since last June, have once again been linked by direct flights with the TAAG company, in code-sharing with Iberia.
Furthermore, Angola is considered a ‘priority country’ in the African dimension of Spain’s foreign policy, as reflected in the Third Africa Plan of 2019 and in the Africa 2023 Focus Action Programme, approved in 2021.
The MPLA, President Lourenço’s party, won the elections again in August, but with the worst result in its history and a parallel rise of UNITA, the main opposition party. Nevertheless, the MPL, with 124 seats in the 220-seat National Assembly, still holds an absolute majority in the chamber.
UNITA appealed the election results, saying they were not fair and threatened to boycott the new National Assembly that is to be constituted today by not accepting the minutes of its 90 elected deputies. Finally, after the Constitutional Court rejected UNITA’s appeal and confirmed Lourenço’s victory, UNITA decided to accept the minutes.
