Lula da Silva and Ricardo Alfonsin spoke about the need for greater regional integration to strengthen democracies in the face of authoritarian threats and to deepen the fight against hunger and poverty, it was officially reported. The meeting was reported on the official Twitter account of the Argentine Embassy in Madrid, where the visit of the former Brazilian president to the diplomatic headquarters is appreciated, in the middle of the tour that the leader of the Workers’ Party (PT) makes through European countries.
@LulaOficial We had an interesting conversation about the need to fight for Latin American unity and the construction of a freer, fairer, more egalitarian and more democratic world. pic.twitter.com/b0XlbYwO0v — Argentina in Spain (@ARGenesp)
November 22, 2021
“Thank you former President @LulaOficial for your visit to the Argentine Embassy. We had an interesting conversation about the need to fight for Latin American unity and the construction of a freer, fairer, more egalitarian and more democratic world,” Ambassador Alfonsin wrote of the meeting. On a tour of Europe, Lula claimed that his country may be back on the international scene from next year’s elections, after announcing his intention to be a candidate for the Presidency in the October 2022 elections, a decision that he will need in the next four months. With the premise of making it clear that the current government of Brazil, led by the far-right Jair Bolsonaro, does not represent the soul of the Brazilian people, Lula (2003-2010) explained in an interview published today by the Spanish newspaper El País, the reasons that motivate him not to leave the political arena and to fight for a Brazil and for a “more humane world in which everyone has the basics.” After an active tour of Europe, which took him to Germany, Belgium, France and Spain, Lula said in the interview that “today Brazil is broken.” The leader of the Workers’ Party (PT) recalled that, at the end of his presidency in 2010, Brazil was positioned on the international scene, “in a situation of economic growth and respectability.” However, today in the country “there are 19 million people in Brazil who go hungry,” he lamented. Today it is bankrupt. We have more unemployment and inflation. And the hunger that had ended in Brazil in 2014 returned with great force. Brazil was an international protagonist. And everything was dismantled,” he added. I cannot admit that the world produces more food than humanity can eat and that we have 800 million hungry people in the world. Nor that, in Brazil, which is the third largest food producer in the world, people are going hungry,” he said. That makes me want to fight, it makes me young. I seem to be 76 years old, but I have the energy of 30 years. The world cannot go on like this. That’s why I want to do politics.” Lula has not yet defined his candidacy, but yesterday he said that he intends to run but that he will define it between february and March, since, according to the former president, his desire to be a candidate “does not depend on personal will.” I have to build with other people and with other parties a program for Brazil. I have to make an alliance, because the important thing is not only to win the elections, it is to be able to govern,” he said. All the surveys show that my Government is considered the best there was in Brazil: it has been the best moment of social inclusion, of universities, of increases in employment and salary; the poor and most humble also conquered citizenship. If I return to the presidency, I cannot do less than I did. (…) I can’t fail. I have to go back to recover the international prestige of Brazil so that the people can eat three times a day,” Lula said.
