Corrupt. Communist. Leftist. With an inflated ego. With these words, dedicated to the three-time president of Brazil, Luis Inácio Lula da Silva, Javier Milei shattered all hope of rebuilding diplomatic relations with the greatest power in South America, which he ruined with his outbursts before he even took office. Far from issuing an apology, as the leader of the Workers’ Party had demanded, the Argentine was proud to tell what he considers “the truth,” two weeks before the Mercosur Summit in Paraguay, which he plans to attend.
“I did not speak with the president of Argentina because I think he has to apologize, to Brazil and to me. “He talked a lot of nonsense,” Lula recalled on Wednesday, in dialogue with UOL. “I love Argentina. It is a very important country. It is not a president who is going to create tares,” he clarified, and left an irony against the libertarian for his adventures abroad: “If he wants to govern Argentina that is fine, but he should not try to govern the world.”
As reported by Página/12, the link between the two is broken, although the Casa Rosada made some gestures of rapprochement and tried to minimize the crisis with the country’s main economic partner. In that context, Milei was asked on a television program about Lula’s statements. “The truth is that it is such a small discussion. It seems like a discussion between pre-adolescent children,” he involuntarily sketched an x-ray of his most common behavior. “The same mechanism as (Gustavo) Petro, as (Pedro) Sánchez,” he reviewed personal enemies he crossed paths with in recent months. He continued with a question: “Do you think Lula did not do similar things? Petro and Lula did similar things, actively interfering in our campaign.”
“The things I said above are true. What are the problems? Did I call him corrupt? Wasn’t he imprisoned for being corrupt?” he said. Lula was deprived of his liberty for 580 days in an operation to remove him from the 2018 electoral race, but the Supreme Court of Justice of Brazil annulled the sentence against him, which it described as a “historical error”, a fact that Milei seems to ignore at best.
But the barrage of nonsense did not end there. “What did I call you a communist? Isn’t you one?” he asked. “Since when do we have to apologize for telling the truth? Or are we so sick of political correctness that we can’t say anything to the left, even if it’s true?” he said, as a way of vindicating his mental health.
Finally, he accused Lula of having promoted Sergio Massa’s “negative campaign” against him – in reference to the fact that the candidate of the Union for the Fatherland had added Edihno Silva, former campaign manager of the PT, to his work team – and asked to “get above” the discussions in favor of the relationship between nations, which suggests an outline of understanding of the responsibility expected of a head of State after more than half a year at the head of the Executive. “Those who lied demand that they be apologized for having told the truth, come on. We must get above these trivialities because the interests of the Argentines and the Brazilians are more important than the inflated ego of some leftist” (sic), he suggested and ruined in the same sentence.
The ratification of Milei’s outbursts took place when, according to what had been revealed from the Casa Rosada, his order was not to confront the president of Brazil. “Whatever Lula intends is fine. It is within his wishes and we respect them, but the President has not committed anything that he has to repent of, at least for now,” spokesman Manuel Adorni had said on Thursday. The new exchange of declarations takes place two weeks before the Mercosur Summit that will take place in two weeks in Paraguay, where both leaders will face each other. At the G7 summit they chose to ignore each other and barely crossed paths in a hallway.
As reported Page 12tensions between Argentina and Brazil have increased in recent weeks due to Bolsonarists seeking refuge in the national territory, fleeing prison sentences for the attack on the three branches of government in Brasilia in 2023. The National Commission for Refugees (CONARE) estimates that a thousand or more Brazilians will request it in the coming weeks. In this regard, Lula stressed on Wednesday that “the fugitives who are in Argentina, some have already been sentenced,” and indicated that they “do not want” to go to Brazil, so they should “stay imprisoned in Argentina.” “We are trying to do it in the most peaceful way possible,” he concluded.
