Parliament approves insurance travel to the Vatican and Strasbourg

ANDthese movements were unanimously adopted in the votes today in plenary.

In the letters sent to the Assembly of the Republic on these two visits, the Head of State states that he will travel to the Vatican between 23 and 24 September for a meeting with the Pope and the Council of Europe in Strasbourg between 29 and 30 to mark the 50 years of Portugal's accession to this organization.

In May, António José Seguro formally invited Pope Leo XIV to visit Portugal in 2027, on the occasion of the 110th anniversary of Fatima and when 500 years of formalization of the apostolic nunciature in Portugal are celebrated.

“ In 2027, the 500th anniversary of the formalization of the apostolic nunciature in Portugal, along with the 110th anniversary of the Marian apparitions in Fatima and the 10th anniversary of the canonization of Francisco and Jacinta, President António José Seguro addressed to Pope Leo XIV an invitation to make a visit to Portugal next year”, reads a note then published by the Presidency of the Republic.

In this note, the Head of State described the diplomatic relations between Portugal and the Holy See as “an example of institutional dialogue, mutual respect and historical cooperation between sovereign states, linked by a cultural and spiritual proximity that results from the sharing of universal values such as humanism, peace and human dignity”.

The Council of Europe, which António José Seguro will visit at the end of this month, is an international organization for the promotion of human rights, founded on May 5, 1949, with 47 Member States, including all the countries of the European Union, to which Portugal joined in 1976.

The consent of the Assembly of the Republic to the movement of the Head of State is a formality imposed by the Constitution, which states that the President of the Republic cannot leave the national territory without the approval of the parliament.

António José Seguro, who took office as President of the Republic on March 9, this year, has so far made eight trips abroad. The first was Spain, between 19 and 20 April, where it was received by King Felipe VI, and by the head of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, in Madrid.

After that, it was twice in Italy, it was in Luxembourg and the United States of America, it returned to Spain, and it moved to France and Cape Verde, which it chose for its first State visit.