The President of Guinea-Bissau, Umaro Sissoco Embaló, considered, on Tuesday, his state visit to Portugal as a “reason for pride”, admitting cooperation with Lisbon as crucial for Bissau, at the same time as he downplayed the manifesto of indignation of Guinean students and workers.
The Guinean Head of State is in Portugal for what is the first state visit of a President of Guinea-Bissau to the country and, before boarding, at Osvaldo Vieira airport, in Bissau, he spoke about the official agenda and reacted to the protest by Guineans who reside in Portugal.
Umaro Sissoco Embaló said he did not care about “the people ordered and paid” which he considered “four or five failures”, when asked by journalists about the manifesto of Guinean activists, students and workers in Portugal, in which they accuse the Portuguese President and Government to “sanitise” Sissoco’s image. In a letter addressed to the President of the Republic, the President of the Assembly of the Republic and the Portuguese Prime Minister, the Firkidja di Púbis movement, which brings together Guinean activists, students and workers in Portugal, expresses its “deep indignation at the support that the State Portuguese has provided Umaro Sissoco Embaló”.
The manifesto’s subscribers criticize the fact that Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and António Costa received Sissoco in Portugal, without the Supreme Court of Justice of Guinea-Bissau giving a legal ruling on the outcome of the second round of the presidential elections in 2020. “I don’t care. matters”, was the response that President Sissoco gave, in French, to the protesters, who said “they are failed Guineans”.
“In every society there are complex people, all Guineans should be proud. I am the first President of the Republic of Guinea-Bissau to make a State visit to Portugal, which should make everyone proud. Now, with the people commissioned and paid, I don’t care”, he said.
The Guinean Head of State also highlighted the fact that he was invited by his Portuguese counterpart, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, and that Guinea-Bissau is among the limited number of visits that each country promotes per year. For Umaro Sissoco Embaló this state visit “shows that the relationship between Guinea and Portugal is at the highest level” and is “a strong sign of the relationship between countries”.