Socialist President of Brazil Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is unlikely to attend the auguration of President-elect Javier Milei of neighboring Argentina, his officials said on Monday, or even call Milei to congratulate him on the grounds that he felt “personally offended” by Milei referring to him as a corrupt “communist.”
Milei, an outspoken libertarian outsider candidate, won a landslide victory in the Argentine November 19 presidential election against socialist Minister of Economics Sergio Massa. An economist and former television commentator, Milei vowed to enact mass privatizations of state assets, adopt the U.S. dollar as an official currency in Argentina, and eliminate a large percentage of the nation’s federal ministries to cut government spending. On foreign policy, Milei has repeatedly asserted he would not “do business with communists” or autocrats – and listed Lula among the leaders he has no intention of reaching out to.
Brazil is Argentina’s largest trade partner and one of its oldest friends on the world stage. Milei’s opposition to Lula stems from the latter’s multiple convictions on charges of corruption – resulting from crimes committed during the two presidential terms he served before the current one – and Lula’s alliances with China, Russia, Iran, and other rogue regimes. In an apparent gesture to emphasize his disgust for Lula, Milei made one of his first phone calls as president-elect to Lula’s predecessor, conservative former President Jair Bolsonaro. Bolsonaro is the first confirmed guest to attend Milei’s inauguration on December 10.
– Segunda-feira
– 20/novembro.
– 10h20.
– @JMilei , @jairbolsonaro e @BolsonaroSP pic.twitter.com/4SfFlLE5ep— Jair M. Bolsonaro (@jairbolsonaro) November 20, 2023
Lula himself has not commented on the possibility of speaking to Milei. In a statement posted to Twitter on Sunday, Lula congratulated the Argentine people for participating in a free and fair election, but did not congratulate Milei or mention him at all.
“Democracy is the voice of the people, and it must always be respected,” Lula wrote. “My congratulations to the Argentine institutions for conducting the electoral process and to the Argentine people who participated in the election day in an orderly and peaceful manner.”
“I wish the new government good luck and success. Argentina is a great country and deserves all our respect. Brazil will always be available to work together with our Argentine brothers and sisters,” he added.
Apparently speaking on Lula’s behalf, however, a top Brazilian government official told reporters on Monday that Lula was personally offended by Milei’s remarks about him and had no interest in reaching out to the new Argentine government.
“If it were me, I would only [call Milei] after he called to apologize,” Paulo Pimenta, Lula’s minister of the Social Communication Secretariat, told reporters on Monday. “He gratuitously offended President Lula and the gesture of calling to apologize is up to the president-elect.”
Even with an apology, Pimenta added, if he were Lula, he would only “think about the possibility of a conversation.”
Lula’s top foreign policy adviser, Celso Amorim, indicated in remarks to the Brazilian newspaper O Globo on Monday that Lula would not attend Milei’s inauguration because he felt “personally offended” by the libertarian economist.
“I still don’t know who will represent Brazil” at the inauguration, he told the newspaper. “I think President Lula, I don’t think he will go. From what I know of the president, having been the target of personal offenses, I find it very difficult for him to go.”
Amorim added that he did not expect Lula to rupture ties with Argentina and downplayed the emotional nature of his boss.
“I cannot speak on behalf of President-elect Milei, but as far as President Lula is concerned, I think he has full capacity to distinguish between personal and state issues,” the foreign policy chief added.
Milei has done little — both as a television commentator and, later, a presidential candidate — to disguise his lack of respect for Lula. He has repeatedly referred to Lula as a “furious communist” and a “thief.” In an interview with Peruvian journalist Jaime Bayly shortly before the November vote, Milei suggested he would decline any invitation to meet with Lula in person and accused Lula of deploying political strategists to Buenos Aires to help his opponent Sergio Massa.
“They [the Massa campaign] contracted, with the assistance of Lula, a group of Brazilians who dedicate themselves to running a negative campaign to smear me all day,” Milei told Bayly.
Asked about Lula personally, Milei called him a “communist” and “obviously” corrupt. Asked if he would meet with Lula, Milei plainly replied, “no.”
In an interview with American journalist Tucker Carlson in September, Milei suggested that he would not engage in any warm ties with the Lula administration, lumping him into the same category as genocidal Chinese dictator Xi Jinping and Russian strongman Vladimir Putin.
“Not only would I not do business with China, I won’t do business with any communist,” Milei told Carlson. “I am a defender of freedom, peace, and democracy. Communists have no place there. The Chinese have no place there. [Russian strongman Vladimir] Putin has no place there. Let’s go further: [socialist Brazilian President] Lula [da Silva] has no place there.”
The dispute with Milei is the third such spat with a fellow world leader this year for Lula, a 78-year-old with a reputation for a short temper and love of alcohol. In May, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky failed to show up for a meeting with Lula after the Brazilian president insulted the wartime leader as a “nice comedian.” In July, Lula surprisingly disparaged fellow radical leftist leader Gabriel Boric of Chile for condemning left-wing regimes that violate the human rights of their citizens, dismissing him as a “hasty young man” (Boric is 41 years younger than Lula).
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Javier Milei via Storyful
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