Lisbon, June 6, jun 2025 (Lusa) - The president of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, and the Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro, will be together in Stuttgart and Munich, Germany, to celebrate Portugal Day with Portuguese emigrant communities.
"Continuing a tradition since 2016, the president will travel tomorrow [Saturday] 7 June, accompanied by the Prime Minister, to Stuttgart and, on 8 June, to Munich, Germany, to celebrate Portugal Day, Camões Day and Portuguese Communities Day with our compatriots in that region," reads a note published on the official website of the Presidency of the Republic on Friday.
According to the same note, the president and the head of the new PSD/CDS-PP government, which took office on Thursday, will also attend the Nations League final between Portugal and Spain, scheduled for Sunday at 8 p.m. in Munich.
The writer and State Councillor Lídia Jorge, a native of the Algarve, chairs the organising committee for these 10 June celebrations, which will take place in Lagos, in the Algarve.
The Portugal Day celebrations abroad were planned for Macau, but were cancelled following the fall of the previous PSD/CDS-PP government on 11 March and the calling of early legislative elections for 18 May.
The celebrations in Germany, to be attended by the president and the prime minister, were announced on the eve of their departure and on the day the secretaries of state of the new government headed by Luís Montenegro took office.
Last Saturday, during a visit to the headquarters of the Food Bank Against Hunger in Lisbon, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa was asked why this year there would only be celebrations on 10 June in Portugal and not also in Macau, as had been planned.
The head of state explained that this was due to the schedule for the swearing-in of the members of the new PSD/CDS-PP government, which took place between Thursday and today, and the debate on the respective programme in parliament, which has been scheduled for 17 and 18 June.
"It was impossible, at a time when the Government is finalising the programme, delivering the programme, the parliament is setting the date and then holding the debate, to make a trip abroad for 10 June. It will have to be later. We will see under what circumstances and when," the head of state said at the time.
When he took office as head of state in 2016, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, in conjunction with the then prime minister, António Costa, established a model of double celebrations of 10 June, in Portugal and with Portuguese communities abroad.
In 2016, Portugal Day was celebrated between Lisbon and Paris, in 2017 between Porto and Brazil, in 2018 between the Azores and the United States of America, and in 2019 between Portalegre and Cabo Verde.
In 2020, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, only one ceremony was held at the Jerónimos Monastery in Lisbon, and in 2021 there were also only celebrations in Portugal, in Madeira.
In 2022, the celebrations were held in Braga and the United Kingdom, and in 2023 in Peso da Régua, in the district of Vila Real, and in South Africa, for the last time with António Costa as prime minister.
In 2024, with Luís Montenegro now at the head of the government, 10 June was celebrated in three municipalities in Leiria affected by the 2017 fires - Pedrógão Grande, Figueiró dos Vinhos and Castanheira de Pera - and in Coimbra and Switzerland.
IEL/ADB // ADB.
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