“Alberto”, shouted Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
There was Alberto Fernández, president of Argentina, recently arrived from Buenos Aires on a lightning visit.
The Argentine took a plane on Monday morning to São Paulo to personally congratulate Lula, whom he considers a friend, for his electoral victory over Jair Bolsonaro.
The Brazilian made a place for him on his agenda, very tight on the first day as president of Brazil, and thus repaid that visit that Fernández made him in 2019 in prison.
After a meeting alone in a São Paulo hotel, Fernández confirmed that Lula's first international trip will be to Buenos Aires, before his inauguration, scheduled for January 1, 2023.
All my love, my admiration and my respect, dear companion.
We have a future that embraces us and summons us.@LulaOficial pic.twitter.com/XEbKPI42O0
– Alberto Fernández (@alferdez) October 31, 2022
“I have had the great joy of meeting again with my dear friend and president-elect of Brazil, Lula.
Everyone knows my relationship with Lula and she did not want to be absent today knowing the difficult times she had to go through.
Today is a day of vindication”, said Fernández after the meeting in a hotel in the largest city in Brazil.
"We talk more about the future than the past," she said.
Lula da Silva spent much of his first day as president-elect receiving congratulations from presidents and high-ranking foreign officials, including the American Joe Biden.
But she made a hole in the agenda, very tight, to receive Fernández.
The Argentine took a plane with a small delegation very early on Monday, barely receiving the Brazilian's approval.
With the security issue resolved, a complex point because it was an unofficial visit by a head of state, he landed at noon in Sao Paulo.
I found hoje com or friend @alferdez.
The nation of Argentina is an irmão country and I am happy to return to friendship.
Let's strengthen our cooperation for a better future for us 🇧🇷🇦🇷
📸: @ricardostuckert pic.twitter.com/2w5hVqzQma
– Lula 13 (@LulaOficial) October 31, 2022
The visit has been important for Fernández.
Lula da Silva will help repair the battered relations between Argentina and Brazil, in low hours due to the poor personal relationship that the Argentine maintains with Bolsonaro.
The situation worsened especially during the campaign.
Bolsonaro chose Argentina as an example of a failed country, devastated by the economy and victim of a communist government only comparable to Cuba or Venezuela, a caricatured profile that in Buenos Aires was followed almost with sarcasm.
But there is also an extra component, of almost personal dimensions.
Fernández is going through low hours in Buenos Aires, besieged by the power disputes that are bleeding the Peronist coalition that co-leads with its vice president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.
Lula, as a friend of both, can serve as a bridge to restore the lost dialogue.
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