Argentine President Alberto Fernández will make a lightning visit to São Paulo this Monday (31) to meet Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), who defeated Jair Bolsonaro (PL) in the second round this Sunday (30). ) and will return to head of government in Brazil in January.
The information, initially disclosed by the newspaper O Globo, was confirmed by the Sheet with sources from the Buenos Aires chancellery. The trip has relevant political weight for a Fernández in crisis and, in a way, marks an attempt to rescue a diplomatic tradition between the two countries – the newly sworn-in leader of one usually visits, before any other representative, the other.
It also echoes in 2015, when Mauricio Macri, elected less than two weeks ago after defeating a candidate allied to PT, met with Brazilian Dilma Rousseff in Brasília, reinforcing the strategic role of the relationship.
After being elected, however, Bolsonaro chose to make his first international trip as president to Chile, at the time ruled by the rightist Sebastián Piñera.
Relations between Brasilia and Buenos Aires are not at their best. The current Brazilian president did not attend Fernández’s inauguration in 2019 — a pattern that would be repeated in other electoral results favorable to the left in the region — and, in the campaign, he exploited the neighboring country’s crisis as a way of attacking Lula, given the PT’s proximity. with Fernández and his deputy, Cristina Kirchner.
When he was still a candidate, the Argentine president visited Lula in prison in Curitiba. Afterwards, he maintained a relationship in many measures that was only protocol with Bolsonaro, and the lack of dialogue meant that even Mercosur, for example, was practically on hold — with Brazil preferring the bloc to be more flexible and Argentina defending a more closed line. .
For the Fernández government, Lula’s return to power has the power to be providential. With low popularity, just over 20%, the president is going through a serious economic crisis, with increasingly marked political developments.
The internal division of the coalition opposes the moderate Peronists linked to the president and the Kirchnerists, more to the left, linked to Cristina Kirchner.
With just under a year to go before the Argentine presidential election, a photo with the president-elect of Brazil, still a popular figure in Latin America, can have high political value. The neighboring country followed the Brazilian election closely – on Friday (29), the last debate between Lula and Bolsonaro was broadcast live on TV, being the third most watched program in the time slot, behind only a sports attraction and “Big Brother”.
This Sunday, Fernández and Cristina were among the first foreign leaders to congratulate Lula on his victory.
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