"At the invitation of President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, the President of the Republic of France, Emmanuel Macron, will make a state visit to Portugal on February 27 and 28. The program will take place in Lisbon and Porto", reads a note published on the official website of the Presidency of the Republic.

Last week, the spokesperson for the conference of parliamentary leaders announced that Emmanuel Macron will speak at a solemn welcoming session at the Assembly of the Republic on February 27, which will be attended by the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo. de Sousa, and the Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro.

The spokesperson for the leaders' conference, Jorge Paulo Oliveira, said that in the recent history of Franco-Portuguese relations, whenever a French president made a state visit to Portugal there was a solemn session in the Assembly of the Republic, pointing out as examples: State visits by François Mitterrand, Jacques Chirac, and Giscard d'Estaing.

In the solemn session on February 27, in addition to Emmanuel Macron's speech, an intervention by the President of the Assembly of the Republic, José Pedro Aguiar-Branco, is scheduled. The President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, and the Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro, will be present, but, according to protocol for these ceremonies in parliament, they will not give speeches.

In April 2022, the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, sent a "very warm congratulatory hug" to Emmanuel Macron for his re-election in the French presidential elections, in which he faced Marine Le Pen, from the far right, considering that it was "a "victory for the European Union" and "a victory against xenophobia".

Emmanuel Macron's previous visit to Portugal was in June of that year, to participate in the United Nations (UN) Oceans Conference in Lisbon.

In turn, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa was last in France in June last year, to attend the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games.