Álvaro Daniel, who was speaking at the presentation of the program celebrating the 90th birthday of the founding leader of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), Jonas Savimbi, on 3 August, considered Luís' presence “welcome” Montenegro, hoping that the visit will also contribute to strengthening friendship between people and diplomatic relations between Angola and Portugal.
“But it also contributes to strengthening our democratic State (…) What the Portuguese chose to manage their State - and it is going well -, they can also suggest to the Angolans”, declared the politician.
According to Álvaro Daniel, one of the problems that Angola has been experiencing has to do with its “atypical” Constitution of the Republic, which had the support of Portuguese constitutionalists.
“We are seeing what this law is doing to our country, it is not being good at all, (…) it gives excessive powers to the President of the Republic, assuming that it does not allow the President to be directly elected, comes through partisan groups, this causes a lot of things to get stuck”, he said.
The secretary general of UNITA welcomed the visit of the Portuguese ruler to Angola, which takes place “within the scope of relations between States” considering that “it is important that the Angolan State has good relations with all countries”.
“Portugal will help us to have a truly democratic State, of justice, of well-being and that truly sets a good example. May Portugal truly be an example for Angola, only then will his and other Portuguese statesmen’s visits be worth it”, he stressed.
Angola and Portugal have secular diplomatic relations, reinforced Álvaro Daniel, stressing that UNITA has asked Portugal “not to forget that they were the colonizing power, that they not forget that mistakes were made in the past, for the decolonization of this country”.
“And the mistakes made by Portugal continue to make their way until now. Had we had a different outcome than what happened in 1975 (the year 1975, the declaration of independence), our country would certainly not be experiencing what it is experiencing today”, he stressed, also considering it important that Portugal helps the Angolan State to de-partisanise its institutions.”
Luís Montenegro began an official visit to Angola on Tuesday, which ends this Thursday.
