President of Portugal cancels trip to Mozambique because of pandemic

  • Lusa
  • 6 January 2022

Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa had planned an official visit to Mozambique in January, at the invitation of his Mozambican counterpart, Filipe Nyusi.

The president of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, cannot make the official visit to Mozambique that he had planned for this month, because of the pandemic situation in that country, the speaker parliament said on Thursday.

“I must say, as a matter of loyalty, that the president informed all of us who were having lunch a little while ago that he would not be able to go on this trip because, according to what was said, Covid has hit the Mozambican state entities hard,” he said, referring to the lunch held today to present New Year greetings to the president in Belém, which was closed to the media.

Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa had planned an official visit to Mozambique in January, at the invitation of his Mozambican counterpart, Filipe Nyusi.

In a letter to the speaker of parliament, Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues, the president asked the parliament’s assent to travel to Mozambique between 20 and 23 January, on an official visit, at the invitation of his counterpart.

This would have been Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa’s third trip to Mozambique as president and would have taken place during the official campaign period for the early parliamentary elections in Portugal on 30 January, which begins on 16 January.

In May 2016, the year he took office as President, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa made a state visit to Mozambique.

In January 2020, he returned to Mozambique, after the re-election of Filipe Nyusi, to attend his inauguration ceremony in Maputo, and on that occasion, he also travelled to Beira.