Lula da Silva takes advantage of his trip to Europe to defuse the controversy over his mediation plan for Ukraine

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva returns to Europe, but this time as president of Brazil and with a speech about the war in Ukraine that has surprised and angered many in the West.

The president landed this Friday in Lisbon, the traditional gateway for Brazilians and the main stop on a state visit that will also take him to Madrid.

Lula da Silva, who will meet with the heads of State and Government of Portugal and Spain, will take advantage of this trip to insist on his call to talk more about peace and a negotiated solution, and less about continuing to arm the Ukrainians in the face of the Russian invasion. .

He will need to deploy good arguments and all his charm to iron out the rough edges that his suggestion that they are interested in prolonging the contest, raised after his official visit to China, the main ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has caused in the US and the EU. in the conflict.

His speech was interpreted as more aligned with the Russian-Chinese bloc than with the Western one, which would reduce its options to promote political mediation aimed at ending the conflict as a neutral country.

The president arrives in Europe when that controversy still stings.

In an attempt to appease her, the Brazilian reiterated in a speech before the Romanian president, Klaus Werner Iohanni, his condemnation of the invasion, Brazil's position at the UN.

His international tour coincides with a moment of weakness because he has just suffered the first casualty in the Government: this Wednesday he forced the fall of the minister in charge of presidential security due to his passivity during the coup assault.

A video showed General Marcos Gonçalves Dias, the only military minister of the Executive, inside the presidential palace, surrounded by Bolsonarists, without making a move to prevent the invasion on January 8.

The Brazilian seeks alliances in the Iberian Peninsula for his domestic objectives, such as attracting investment for an economy weakened by the pandemic, as well as encouraging other countries to get involved in the defense of the Amazon and the fight against climate change.

But on his agenda he also brings his star proposal in foreign policy: obtaining diplomatic support to promote mediation in the war in Ukraine.

His proposal consists of creating a G-20 of countries that are not directly involved in the conflict to try to convince the presidents of Russia and Ukraine, Vladimir Putin and Volodímir Zelenski, to negotiate the end of hostilities, a scenario that after 15 months of war is extremely remote.

In the last two weeks, the Brazilian has caused a formidable controversy for once again blaming both Zelensky and Putin for the conflict after his official visit to China and before receiving Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Brasilia, which has earned him harsh criticism of both the Joe Biden Administration and Brussels and the accusation that it has sided with Russia and China in the conflict.

Brazil feels that there is a cold war environment in which automatic alignments of the countries are expected.

And that clashes head-on with its diplomatic tradition and its interests.

He prefers to be good and talk to everyone.

Lula now has the opportunity to explain Brazil's position in detail to various European interlocutors with whom he is particularly in tune, such as the Portuguese President, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, King Felipe VI —both attended his inauguration on New Year— , the Portuguese Prime Minister, António Costa, and the Spanish President, Pedro Sánchez.

Lula is convinced that Brazil and other middle powers from the global south deserve a greater role on the international scene.

He wants to be in a middleweight league and have more influence on global affairs.

He advocates more multilateralism in a world that no longer perpetuates the international order of the 20th century.

Lula, together with Chinese President Xi Jinping, during his visit to Beijing on April 14. BRAZIL PRESIDENCY (Via REUTERS)

Traveling with seven ministers and his wife Rosangela da Silva, known as

, Lula's official agenda begins Saturday with the first high-level bilateral summit held by Portugal and Brazil since 2016, when progressive President Dilma Rousseff was ousted from the power in an

or impeachment.

Relations during the Jair Bolsonaro period were contradictory and distant, despite the efforts of the President of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, to maintain ties with the South American giant.

On several occasions, Rebelo de Sousa suffered diplomatic rebuffs from Bolsonaro, who even canceled his meetings at the last minute, but the Portuguese always justified his position with an argument little given to personal pride: "What matters is that there are a million Portuguese living in Brazil and 250,000 Brazilians living in Portugal, and they will continue to live whatever the president and the government.

My function is to represent the Portuguese nation”.

In any case, the comfort of the Portuguese after the change of leadership in Brazil is obvious.

The harmony between the Brazilian and the Portuguese Prime Minister, António Costa, was evident in the meeting they had in November 2022 when they met in Lisbon shortly after Lula won the elections.

Both the Government and the Head of State viewed with good eyes even the fact that the Brazilian president made a speech in the Assembly of the Republic in the acts of April 25, when the Carnation Revolution is commemorated in style, but the opposition right-wing radical closed this door.

The Brazilian president will make his speech in the Chamber, but outside the acts of April 25.

On this European tour, Lula travels with a business delegation.

In addition to the commercial aspect, bilateral agreements are planned such as the validation of basic and secondary education and driving licenses in Portugal and Brazil, which will be signed during the summit on Saturday the 22nd in Lisbon.

On Monday, Lula will participate in the delivery of the Camões Prize, the most important of the letters in Portuguese, corresponding in 2019 to the Brazilian writer and singer Chico Buarque, delayed four years due to Bolsonaro's refusal to sign the award decree and due to the pandemic. .

On Tuesday the 25th, Lula will land in the Spanish capital.

The visit to Madrid has the added component that Spain assumes the presidency of the European Union in July, a situation that may contribute to boosting the ratification of the Mercosur-EU trade agreement, pending for almost five years.

The signature would make it possible to rebalance the Atlantic role within the European Union, which is heavily inclined towards its eastern side with the enlargement towards the East and the war in Ukraine.

In the business chapter, Brazil is very aware that Spain is the second direct investor after the US and, in Portugal, the leading role is for the KC-390 cargo planes that Lisbon has bought from Embraer and that it would like to sell to others European countries.

This five-day trip is part of the diplomatic offensive undertaken by Lula as soon as he won the elections to announce to the world that Brazil is back, once the dark stage of Jair Bolsonaro came to an end, when the Latin American power experienced unprecedented isolation.

Follow all the international information on

Subscribe to continue reading

Read without limits

Keep reading

I'm already a subscriber