Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa faced questions from journalists on this matter at the Citadel of Cascais, in the district of Lisbon.
“I understand the idea,” responded the Portuguese head of state.
“The idea is as follows: there was, indeed, the independence, the so-called ‘Grito do Ipiranga’ by the regent prince D. Pedro, who would become the first emperor of Brazil, and then there were, indeed, in some parts of Brazil, resistances, particularly from Portuguese military forces,” he explained.
The President of the Republic stated that there were “Portuguese military forces who felt it was not justified to follow the steps of the future emperor of Brazil” and that Bahia was “one of the last regions of the future Brazilian empire to embrace independence.”
“Therefore, I understand the idea. The idea is to say that it was the fact that this rebellion was overcome, defeated, which consolidated the step initially taken by D. Pedro. It corresponds to history,” he added.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa argued that “indeed, the initiative is D. Pedro’s, although with widespread support from Brazilians and the armed forces that supported the regent prince until then, but it is true that there was some time until this consolidation occurred, and that the consolidation is seen as a kind of confirmation of what happened at the moment of the declaration of independence.”
When asked if he sees Lula’s proposal to designate July 2, 1823, as the Day of the Consolidation of Independence as an attempt to alter history slightly, he countered: “History is like that.”
The head of state reiterated that it was D. Pedro who took “the first step to break relations” with the Portuguese empire, but there was “a subsequent military and popular movement that reinforced that step,” emphasizing that “this is a fact.”
“It is the same as discussing the 25th of April in Portugal,” he compared, noting that “in the revolutionary process there are several stages, and therefore it can be perfectly said that the initial merit is the ‘Capitães de Abril,’ but there is no doubt that it is later consolidated by the importance of the popular movement and the evolution of the military process.”
Regarding his proposal to establish July 2 as the Day of the Consolidation of Independence, Lula da Silva argued that it is important for it to be known and taught “that it was only on July 2, 1823, that the people of Bahia definitively expelled the Portuguese from Brazil.”
The Brazilian President noted that he has “all respect” for September 7, the national holiday celebrating Brazil’s declaration of independence in 1822.
[Updated at 10:36 PM]
