Next ambassador to the Holy See sees his appointment as ‘a paradigm shift’ in Mozambique

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Next ambassador to the Holy See sees his appointment as ‘a paradigm shift’ in Mozambique

3:39 CAT | 20 Jul 2022

File photo: Sala da Paz

Raul Domingos, president of the Party for Peace, Democracy and Development (PDD), yesterday expressed satisfaction at his appointment to the post of extraordinary and plenipotentiary ambassador to the Holy See, and congratulated the Mozambican head of state, Filipe Nyusi, on his courage and commitment to peace, national reconciliation and inclusion.

Speaking to ‘Notícias’, Domingos said that the President of the Republic had challenged him to set up a Mozambican embassy in the Vatican for the first time in the 47 years of the country’s independence, previous ambassadors having carried out their mission from outside Rome.

He said that the Permanent Mission of Mozambique to the Vatican would allow for in-depth treatment of the special relations between the country and the Holy See, thus contributing to peace and reconciliation.

His appointment writes Raul Domingos into the country’s history as the first prominent opposition figure to assume high-profile functions in the diplomatic structure.

“I see this gesture by President Nyusi as a paradigm shift, since for a long time members of the ruling party occupied the most prominent positions in the state hierarchy,” he stressed.

The politician also stated that, by naming him ambassador to the Holy See, the oldest and most influential diplomacy in the world, the president was realising an emblematic sentence in his January 2020 second term inaugural speech, when he said: “Good ideas do not have partisan colours”.

He added that, in his inaugural address, President Nyusi promised to form a government of inclusion, statements that, according to Domingos, created many expectations and raised debates.

The president of the PDD and member of the Council of State added that, in making those statements, the head of state showed an understanding of inclusion as bringing more diverse sensitivities to the functions of state.

Raul Domingos said that he accepted the challenge because he too supported inclusion, especially when it comes to the state. “The country has to have a national interest and a national agenda, which can only be achieved with different sensitivities,” he said.

Domingos also noted that the relationship between Mozambique and the Vatican did not start with the negotiations between the Frelimo government and Renamo, which culminated in the signing of the Peace Agreement in 1992 in Rome, but dated back many years, having been consolidated in 1988, when Pope John Paul II visited Mozambique and called for peace and concord.

Domingos will however continue to be linked to his political party.

Domingos headed the Renamo delegation in the negotiations with the government which culminated in the signing of the 1992 General Agreement on Peace in Rome, to which he was one of the signatories. He later left Renamo and established his own political party.

Source: Notícias