Two of João Mira-Gomes’ favorite hobbies are related to sports. The Portuguese ambassador to Spain recognizes that he loves to play tennis, where he even rose as champion of his country in various modalities, and for classic car racing. In fact, he owns a 1964 Lotus and a 1956 Jaguar. Mira-Gomes arrived in Madrid just before the coronavirus pandemic occurred, in February of last year, and his first months have been marked by the management of the crisis. . This semester your country presides over the European Union.
The ties that unite Ambassador Mira-Gomes (Lisbon, 61 years old) with Spain come from afar. When he was little, he traveled many times throughout the country with his family. This allowed him to learn Spanish in a self-taught way and to gain a wide vocabulary. “I need to improve it a bit,” he says with a bit of a Portuguese accent.
Graduated in Law from the Catholic University of Lisbon, he entered the diplomatic career 37 years ago. In this long trajectory, it has taken him to destinations as diverse as Brussels – where he has been three times, before NATO and the European Union – Macao, Paris and Berlin. It landed in Madrid in February. “What I remember from those dates is the normality with which everything was developed and that, for example, we did not greet as before,” says the ambassador.
One of the last meetings he attended in person took place around March 10 at the headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in the Palacio de Santa Cruz, where he met with Minister Arancha González Laya. Three days later, the state of alarm and the closure of borders were announced, among other measures. “All the embassy and consulates went to work that same weekend because there were many people who could stay in the country, from Erasmus students to tourists in the Canary Islands or cross-border workers”, describes Mira-Gomes, from his official residence, in a mansion on the Paseo de la Castellana.
The embassy employees made an Excel sheet and entered all the people who had difficulties. There were curious cases such as a street artist who was near Valencia with a kind of trailer in which he carried all his utensils. After many negotiations, he was able to place him on a coach that would take him back to Portugal. At the time of getting on, that trailer did not fit into the bus hold. The solution was to obtain a special authorization for a relative to pick him up. On other occasions, the ambassador himself has had to bring food to a family who was staying in a hotel in Madrid and who ran out of resources. “We realized that it was not a joke. The first job consisted in having an idea of how many people needed help ”, sums up the diplomat.
“The empty image of Madrid is difficult to forget. This city is very beautiful, but what gives it life is the people. Seeing areas like Castellana or Serrano completely empty is impressive and very sad. It was the noise of silence ”, recalls the ambassador. Mira-Gomes also highlights the union that existed in her country during the pandemic and recalls the phrase of Rui Rio, president of the conservative Social Democratic Party (PSD), the first political force of the opposition in Portugal: “Our common enemy is not the government , it is the virus ”. During the first wave of the pandemic, the Portuguese country had about 2,000 deaths.
Mira-Gomes handed over her credentials at the Palacio de la Zarzuela to King Felipe VI in June. He was the first to do it with a mask and without being able to do the ceremonial in the Royal Palace, with the floats included. “It is the new diplomatic era with covid”, sums up the ambassador, who highlights that the legation in Spain is one of the most important for his country abroad. “Spain is the first commercial partner and the first destination for Portuguese exports. To this is added that the cooperation of both countries generates a great influence in international organizations ”, adds the ambassador. Hence, they have common objectives like all of Latin America and Africa, due to their proximity.
The diplomat believes that the perception of his country in Spain has changed in recent years and has ceased to be the poor brother of the Iberian Peninsula. “We are smaller but we have a very similar economy, history and culture. In addition, we have an international projection that is spread internationally. The entry into the European Union was the big change ”, he adds. Now he hopes that normalcy can be restored and travel to other regions to meet them and speak with their respective presidents.
The pending subject of building the AVE
One of the pending issues between Spain and Portugal is to link them by high-speed train, which would allow the Portuguese to reach all of Europe in this railway modality. Ambassador João Mira-Gomes highlights the importance of this corridor and that in his country they are already working to develop it. Of course, it would have a particularity and that is that it would first be used for the transport of goods and then for passengers. In this way, the goods that enter through the port of Lisbon would reach Spain more quickly. “It is already highly developed, but for us the priority will be to first unite the two most important cities, such as Lisbon and Porto, and from there go up the route to Vigo, given the commercial and people exchanges that exist with Galicia”, adds the ambassador. Lines would also be created at other points to join them with Salamanca or the Huelva-Faro corridor. In fact, the latter would allow in the future to create a great junction between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean.
