The president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, stated this Wednesday (06/26/2024) that he has not yet spoken with the Argentine president, Javier Milei, as he considers that he still owes him “apologies” for the “nonsense” he said about he.
He thus alluded to statements made by Milei in his electoral campaign last year, in which he called him “corrupt” and treated him disparagingly as a “communist”, among other qualifications that Lula received with clear discomfort.
“I did not speak with the president of Argentina because I think he should apologize to Brazil and me,” Lula declared in an interview with the UOL portal, in which he clarified that this will not hinder institutional relations with the neighboring country either.
“I love Argentina very much” and “it is not a president who is going to create tares” in the bilateral relationship, Lula stated, to point out that “the people are greater than the rulers.”
Lula also said that his Government is dealing “with a lot of diplomacy” with the case of dozens of far-right activists who participated in the coup plot of January 8, 2003 in Brazil and fled to Argentina in recent months, after Milei assumed the presidency. in that country.
Lula, one of the references of the Latin American left, has so far not had any contact with Milei, who maintains a close relationship with the Brazilian far-right opposition, led by former president Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022).
Milei does not have to “regret anything”
The Government of Argentina considers that the president, Javier Milei, “has not committed anything that he has to regret,” was the response of the Milei administration after the Brazilian president’s request for an apology.
“Whatever President Lula intends is within his wishes, but the president (Milei) has not committed anything for which he needs to repent, at least for the moment,” declared Argentine presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni on Wednesday at a press conference at the Casa Rosada.
Milei and Lula met for the first time last week, at the G7 summit held in Italy, but they avoided each other, did not exchange any words nor were they seen together in photographs. Both will meet again on July 8 in Asunción, within the framework of the semi-annual Mercosur summit, to which Lula has already confirmed her attendance.
(efe, afp/mn)
