“The President of the Republic sent a message of heartfelt condolences to the King of Thailand, His Majesty Maha Vajiralongkorn, on the passing of Queen Mother Sirikit,” reads a message published on the Presidency’s website.
In the message, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa emphasizes that Queen Sirikit “will be remembered for her dedication to multiple social solidarity initiatives” and recalled “with appreciation and recognition the visit she made to Portugal in 1960.”
Queen Sirikit, the mother of King Vajiralongkorn of Thailand, passed away on Friday night at the age of 93 in a Bangkok hospital, according to a statement.
Sirikit, hospitalized since 2019, suffered a blood infection this month, added the same source.
For more than six decades, Queen Sirikit was married to King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who died in 2016 and was Thailand’s longest-reigning monarch.
The queen’s public appearances became rare after 2012 when she suffered a stroke.
In Thailand, the Queen was committed to supporting various royal foundations and paramilitary organizations that, during the Cold War, defended the monarchy against the threat of communism, according to the Efe news agency.
Born in 1932 into an aristocratic family, she studied in Bangkok until age 14, when she left for Europe, where her father, Prince Nakkhatra, was appointed ambassador to several countries.
Sirikit met Bhumibol in Paris, and they grew closer as she regularly visited him during his recovery at a Lausanne hospital following a car accident. They married on April 28, 1950, in Thailand, seven days after Bhumibol’s coronation.
Together they had four children: Vajiralongkorn, born in 1952 and who ascended to the throne in 2016, and Princesses Ubolratana, Sirindhorn, and Chulabhorn, born in 1951, 1955, and 1957 respectively.
