The president of Argentina, Alberto Fernández, met this Monday afternoon (31) with Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), who defeated Jair Bolsonaro (PL) in the second round this Sunday (30) and will return to the head of government. in Brazil in January.
It was the first international meeting of the president-elect of Brazil. Fernández published on his social media account a video of the moment when the two meet, in a hotel in São Paulo, and exchange a hug.
“All my love, my admiration and my respect, dear companions. We have a future that embraces us and summons us”, he wrote. In the video you can hear him saying: “President, what a joy to see you!”.
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.
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 only protocol with Bolsonaro.
Fernández mentioned the various short-circuits with the Brazilian government under the current president in an interview with Radio 10 on Monday. “During all these years, I kept quiet about the provocations I received from the government of Brazil, because I know that the relationship between Argentina and Brazil must be indestructible regardless of who governs,” he said. “The bond with Brazil will be much deeper, more realistic and sincere, and that is no small feat.”
The leader of the neighboring country also suggested that an axis be built between Brazil, Mexico and Argentina, the three largest economies in the region that are now governed by the left with the arrival of Lula to power.
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.
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