Adalberto Costa Júnior spoke to journalists after paying tribute to the former president, this Sunday at Praça da República, in Luanda, recognizing that it was a difficult decision.
"We thought that we should be present in order to pay tribute to the former President of the Republic. It was not an easy decision, given the fact that we arrived here with so much lack of tranquility and absence of a part of the family, we attended a ceremony with some partisan excesses, I do not think that the messages of political parties would fit here", he commented.
During the funeral ceremonies, messages were read from the family and from various entities, including the vice-president of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), a party of José Eduardo dos Santos, of which he was president emeritus at the time of his death, and which has been in power in Angola since independence in 1975.
"When it comes to the State, the State must represent us all and these are still the challenges that Angola faces, but regardless of that, we did well to come here", he added.
The funeral of the former head of state took place in the post-election period and there are still no definitive results from Wednesday's vote, in which provisional data point to the victory of the MPLA, which the largest opposition party National Union for Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) rejects.
After speaking to journalists, Adalberto Costa Júnior, as he walked from the tent where the ceremony took place to the Agostinho Neto Memorial, was applauded and many of those present shouted "3", an allusion to UNITA's position in the ballot, and " President", with the leader of the main opposition party responding with nods to the population.
The former head of state died on July 8, aged 79, in Barcelona, Spain, where he has spent most of his time for the past five years, but the funeral has only now taken place due to a dispute over custody of the body between two factions. of the family of José Eduardo dos Santos - the widow and three youngest children, supported by the Angolan regime, against the five oldest children.
This Sunday's ceremonies were attended by Ana Paula dos Santos and the three children she had in common with the former head of state, as well as another son, José Filomeno dos Santos "Zenu", who was sentenced by the court to a prison term for his involvement in a corruption case and is awaiting, in freedom, a decision on his appeal.
The funeral was also marked by the absence of the former president's mediatic eldest daughters, the businesswoman Isabel dos Santos, who faces several cases in Angolan justice and in other countries, and the former MPLA deputy, Tchizé dos Santos, who declared her support for the UNITA candidate for the presidency, Adalberto da Costa Júnior, against the MPLA candidate and successor to his father in the presidency, João Lourenço.
Praça da República, where the funeral monument of the first President is located, in the António Agostinho Neto Memorial, was again chosen for the funeral ceremonies, after having hosted a disembodied public wake shortly after the death of José Eduardo dos Santos, during a seven-day national mourning.
This Sunday, there were military honors in a program that included lyrical music, reading messages from the Angolan State and the family, the MPLA, the José Eduardo Santos Foundation and reading the funeral eulogy, as well as an ecumenical service, accompanied by choirs.
