Portuguese American Journal

Portugal: President Rebelo de Sousa to address the United Nations – New York, NY

The President of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, will briefly address on Tuesday, September 20, the United Nations General Assembly’s High-Level Meeting on Large Movements of Refugees and Migrants.

The intervention by the President of Portugal, taking place late in the afternoon, is followed by a reception hosted by the President of the United States Barack Obama.

President Rebelo the Sousa, who arrived in New York on Sunday, is accompanied on this visit by former President of Portugal Jorge Sampaio and by Augusto Santos Silva the Portuguese Minister of Foreign Affairs.

At the United Nations on Monday, President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa held bilateral meetings with the King of Spain, Felipe VI, and the newly elected President of Brazil Michel Temer. In addition, the President of Portugal will hold bilateral meetings with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, the President of Mozambique, Filipe Nyusi, the President of Chile, Michelle Bachelet, the President of Guinea-Bissau, José Mário Vaz, the President of Senegal, Macky Sall, the President of Ivory Coast, Alassane Ouattara, and the President of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama.

In New York, President Rebelo de Sousa and President Sampaio will meet with former Portuguese Prime Minister António Guterres, the former United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, currently the front runner candidate to become the next United Nations Secretary General.

On Wednesday, the President of Portugal will visit the Portuguese-American community of New Jersey, Newark. On Thursday, in New York, he will meet with the Portuguese-American Chamber of Commerce and will the keynote speaker at  Annual Forum of the Portuguese American Post-Graduate Society (PAPS).

The visit closes with a reception at the New York Center for Jewish History co-hosting with the American Sephardi Federation an exhibit dedicated to the life and work of Aristides de Sousa Mendes, the Portuguese Consul-General in Bordeaux, France, who saved thousands of refugees during the second World War II.

President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, 68, was inaugurated as the 20th President of the Portuguese on March, 2016. Considered a moderate, he is a former leader of the center-right Social Democratic Party (PSD) in opposition to the ruling Socialist Party (PS). Although the office of President of Portugal is limited mostly to symbolic ceremonial duties, he plays an important role at times of political uncertainty. The Portuguese Constitution allows the president exceptional powers such as meditating conciliation and consensus, dissolving parliament, appointing and dismissing prime ministers and calling for new general elections.

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