The trip that President Lula (PT) and his entourage made to Portugal and Spain in April cost the Brazilian government R$1.1 million. The information was published on the Veja Magazine website.
What happened:
On April 21, Lula arrived in Lisbon, Portugal for a sixday visit.. Accompanied by First Lady Janja, the President was welcomed with a red carpet at the airport as part of a tour that also included a trip to Spain;
Hotel days spend for the period was US$229,820.79, about R$1.1 million, i.eand according to Itamaraty, in response to a request from Veja about the Access to Information Act;
Most of the expenses were made during the stay in Spain, where Lula arrived in the early afternoon of April 25th. Itamaraty announced this while leaving the Spanish capital in the late afternoon of the following day The accommodation costs amounted to approximately R$ 850,000;
The Brazilian government did not provide details of the size of the entourage, but Portuguese broadcaster TV SIC did Two cars were used and at least 22 cars in Portugal. Next to Lula Eight ministers were also on the trip and at least 77 business people were invited by Apex Brasil to attend the PortugalBrazil Business Forum;
Among politicians The entourage also included at least four senators and nine representatives. Marcelo Freixo, President of Embratur, and Jorge Viana, President of ApexBrasil were other members of the entourage;
The President of the Republic and his entourage can stay in Brazilian embassies if the country has it, but this is optional and subject to availability. Lisbon and Madrid have Brazilian embassies;
In Portugal, Lula and his team of ministers signed 13 agreements for education, health, energy, space cooperation, audiovisual production and tourism;
Lula presented composer and writer Chico Buarque with the Camões Prize, the highest literary award in Portuguese;
Lula met with the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, and signed three agreements with Spain for education, work and science.