Javier Milei in the election campaign and Javier Milei, who has already been elected president of Argentina, are two different characters. While the first called Lula da Silva a “thief”, “corrupt” and “communist”, the second refers to the head of state of neighboring Brazil, the country’s main trading partner, as “esteemed president”. Last week, Milei delivered a letter to Lula in a very cordial tone, in which he predicted harmonious institutional relations between the two South American giants.
The letter, delivered by Diana Mondino, Argentina’s future foreign minister, to her future Brazilian counterpart Mauro Vieira, speaks of a common path “of prosperity and growth” and the building of “ties” between Argentina’s governments. , ready to choose, and a Brazilian, chosen just over a year ago.
“I know that you know and fully appreciate what this moment of transition means for the historic process of Argentina, its people, and of course for me and my team of collaborators who will join me in the next government,” the letter said. .
“Many challenges await us in both countries and I am convinced that an exchange in economic, social and cultural fields, based on the principles of freedom, will position us as competitive countries in which their citizens can develop their capacities to the maximum and So choose the future they want,” he adds.
In the letter, Milei, a far-right libertarian who promised to dollarize the country, close the central bank, privatize all possible state-owned enterprises and even sell human organs, also says he hopes that joint action between the countries will translate into “growth and prosperity for Argentinians and Brazilians”.
“We know that our countries are closely linked by geography and history and on this basis we want to continue to share complementary areas, in terms of physical integration, trade and international presence, allowing all this joint action to be translated, from both parties, in growth and prosperity for Argentinians and Brazilians,” he continues.
Brazil’s participation in the Argentine economy is fundamental: with 20%, the country is on par with China on the list of largest importers, and above the United States with 10% and Germany with 6%, according to data from 2020. [ver quadro].
“I hope that our time together as presidents and heads of government will be a phase of fruitful work and building of ties that consolidate the role that Argentina and Brazil can and should play in the Conference of Nations.”
And the president, who has just defeated Sergio Massa, a center-left Peronist, in the race for Casa Rosada, concludes the document with greetings of “appreciation and respect” to Lula and emphasizes that he hopes to see him at the inauguration. the day December 10.
“A circus”
Presenting himself as a candidate in the elections that ended in a second round on the 19th of 2021, Milei accused Lula of contradicting his candidacy and called him a “furious communist”. “The red caste is trembling. Many communists are furious and are acting directly against my person and my space. Freedom moves forward. Long live freedom, man,” wrote on X, ex-Twitter, about a loan from Brazil to the government still under the presidency of Peronist Alberto Fernández.
On another occasion he called him a “thief” and an “ex-convict” and in a recent interview with a Peruvian vehicle he replied “no!” when asked whether he would meet Lula, as head of state.
On the Brazilian side, the head of diplomacy Mauro Vieira devalued the verbal outbursts of the then candidate and appreciated the gesture of Diana Mondino. “It was a great opportunity and a great gesture for her to want to be the personal bearer of this letter from the president,” he said at Itamaraty, the headquarters of Brazil’s Foreign Ministry, in Brasilia. “What was said during the campaign is one thing, what happens during the government is another,” he summarized.
On the Argentine side, Mondino said that “Brazil is Argentina’s most important partner.” “I wasted a lot of time explaining that Milei never said the things he said. Brazil is Argentina’s main partner and we are not going to destroy anything. They have created a circus,” he told O Globo newspaper.
“It would be a pleasure and an honor to have the presence of the Brazilian president at the inauguration,” continued Mondino, who comes from the political circle of Maurício Macri, the center-right president who governed Argentina from 2015 to 2019. whose support for Milei in The Last Stretch is seen as decisive for the libertarian triumph – and as essential for ensuring governability in Congress over the next four years.
A revealing detail of the climate of reconciliation between Casa Rosada and Planalto was the decision of the newly elected to retain Daniel Scioli, a Peronist defeated by Macri in 2015, as ambassador to Brazil.
Bolsonaro tour
But will Lula ultimately accept Milei’s invitation? “I don’t know what his decision will be, whether or not the president will be able to go to the inauguration. He will arrive in these days after a major visit abroad,” Mauro Vieira said of the Brazilian president’s presence. at the 28th United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP 28), in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and during a tour of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Germany.
According to presidential advisers, the president is considering three options: be in Buenos Aires, send Vice President Geraldo Alckmin or appoint Mauro Vieira to represent him. Lula’s decision could be made at the last minute, given the geographical proximity between the countries.
However, in making this decision, Lula wants to ensure that he is not received in a hostile climate, especially since former President Jair Bolsonaro, the far-right candidate who was defeated in 2022, was also invited and not only confirmed his presence, but also as a huge entourage of allies. The official list includes two of Bolsonaro’s sons, Senator Flávio and Deputy Eduardo, former ministers such as Ricardo Salles, Ciro Nogueira, Osmar Terra or Jorge Seif, and many parliamentarians with a total of 50 (the list jumps from number 12 to number 12+1 and then to 14 to exclude the number 13, which identifies Lula’s PT at the ballot box).
INTERVIEW WITH ROBERTO GEORG UEBEL
“The relationship will not be based on understanding, but will be harmonious”
Roberto Georg Uebel is professor of International Relations and economist at the Escola Superior de Propaganda e Marketing
Has Javier Milei been more pragmatic and cordial towards Lula da Silva after the elections than he expected?
Yes, more pragmatic than we all expected, especially considering that during the campaign he said that Lula was not welcome, that China would no longer be a strategic partner and that he would leave the Mercosur bloc. In fact, unlike the candidate Milei, the elected Milei knows that even to achieve his most radical plans, such as dollarization and the closure of the central bank, he needs encouragement in tourism and imports from Brazil and China . does not even have the political conditions to leave Mercosur.
Is the Argentine economy, even the ultra-liberal one that Milei dreamed of, not viable without a strong relationship with its key partners?
In this order, Argentina’s main importers are China, Brazil and the US, followed by Germany and he managed in the campaign to insult the first three, because he not only called Lula corrupt or China a dictatorship, but also Joe Biden criticized. Now he has seen that he cannot go in that direction and that this boasting ends in a campaign that sets him apart from Jair Bolsonaro, whose boasting continued even after his election.
Will the relationship between Lula and Milei be peaceful?
If internally he will try to stay true to the program and campaign promises, externally he will be much more pragmatic, as evidenced by the details in which he has already hinted at appointing the former Peronist presidential candidate as ambassador to Brazil, Daniel Scioli holds. to Alberto Fernández’s position. The relationship between Brazil and Argentina at the Lula-Milei meeting will of course not be completely understanding, but it will be harmonious. In short, Diana Mondino, the next Minister of Foreign Affairs, comes, like most of the newly appointed ministers, from Maurício Macri’s core, from the traditional right, which has even caused some discontent among the radicals closest to Milei.
Source: DN
