A cuttlefish rice, a tram ride, a meeting with four political protagonists and — in less than 24 hours in Lisbon — the President of the European Parliament even praised a fifth.
Regarding António Costa’s candidacy for the presidency of the European Council, Roberta Metsola began by saying that this is not a decision that is up to the European Parliament, but ended up offering glowing praise to the former prime minister: “What I can say is that António [Costa] is an old and close friend of mine. I’ve known him for many years. He has unique leadership and humanity capabilities. And these are skills that I believe can take a person anywhere.”
The President of the European Parliament is on a tour of the 27 countries of the European Union in an alleged campaign to appeal to people to vote in the next European elections: “I’m here with one last appeal: don’t forget to vote. June 9th will determine the course of Europe and Portugal for the next five years.”
In Portugal for the fourth time, he landed in Lisbon, coming from Brussels, in the early evening of this Thursday and went to his favorite restaurant in the capital, Solar dos Presuntos, to eat one of his favorite dishes: cuttlefish rice. Friday would be a short day for so many bilateral meetings and also a ceremony of recognition and merit in between, with the awarding of the title of Honorary from the Higher Institute of Social and Political Sciences, University of Lisbon.
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The Observer followed behind the scenes on this day of the President of the European Parliament, was in her entourage and was at all times normally closed to the media.
Metsola to Pedro Nuno Santos: “Ah, here you are”
The morning began with a meeting with the general secretary of the PS, Pedro Nuno Santos, at the party headquarters, in Largo do Rato, for a meeting that lasted just over 20 minutes. Pedro Nuno came to the door of the headquarters to welcome Metsola and, on the way to his office, they passed the wall where all the former general secretaries of the PS are. “Ah, here you are”, pointing Metsola to the last portrait on this wall: the photograph of Pedro Nuno Santos.
At the end of the meeting, Pedro Nuno Santos and Roberta Metsola walked through the gardens of the mansion where they exchanged gifts: Pedro Nuno handed over a sculpture by Mário Soares from the “Os Figurões” collection by Bordallo Pinheiro; Metsola delivered a photograph of Mário Soares to the European Parliament on March 9, 1977, at a time when Soares was on diplomatic visits to European capitals to obtain support from Member States for Portugal’s accession to the EEC.
Metsola wins title Honorary
The four cars in the European Parliament President’s entourage then headed to the Higher Institute of Social and Political Sciences of the University of Lisbon to present the title to Metsola. Honorary. A ceremony that had a full house of active politicians, but also diplomats. Representatives of some parties with parliamentary seats, MEPs, ministers from the current Government and Carlos Moedas, president of Lisbon City Council, were present. Pedro Passos Coelho was also present (remember that Passos Coelho taught at that university in the 2018/2019 academic year), sitting in the second row, next to the Iranian ambassador in Portugal.
Paulo Rangel, one of the ministers present, made a point of, at the end of the ceremony, going to greet the former prime minister (and author of several controversial statements in recent days) and Passos said to him: “Now personally, many congratulations, be patient .” Rangel laughed and exchanged brief words with the Iranian ambassador — a hot topic today, after Iran captured a ship flying the Portuguese flag.
At the ceremony, Roberta Metsola called for voting in the European elections on June 9, asking the Portuguese to “not give in to the comfort of easy cynicism”, while praising what she called the “Portuguese effect”.
“Stand up, be the change, make your voice heard. Stop waiting for someone else to do it. On June 9th, you will vote and be part of this historic Portuguese effect”, asked Metsola. The President of the European Parliament also warned that European values are increasingly threatened, but also argued that Europe is stronger than ever.
“I already saw that you removed the bars in front of Parliament”
Upon arrival at the Assembly of the Republic, Roberta Metsola was received on the outside stairs by José Pedro Aguiar-Branco, President of the Assembly of the Republic. After the usual greetings, the first words of the President of the European Parliament were about one of Aguiar-Branco’s first measures: “I saw that you removed the bars that were around your Parliament.” Surprised by the observation, Aguiar-Branco laughs and responds that the Assembly of the Republic is supposed to be open to everyone.
The bilateral meeting was followed by a moment for an official photograph and a visit to the “Casa do Parliament — Interpretative Center”, on the other side of the road.