Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva hopes that his American counterpart Joe Biden wins his re-election bid in November.
“Although I am not a voter in the U.S., I think it is obvious that Biden is a greater guarantee for the survival of democracy in the world and in the United States,” Lula told a Brazilian TV channel.
The Democrat Biden is likely to face former Republican President Donald Trump in November, in a rematch of their 2020 contest. Two years later, the leftist Lula defeated the far-right incumbent president Jair Bolsonaro, often compared to Trump, to secure his third non-consecutive term in Brazil.
Lula, who entered politics in the 1970s as a union leader, said he has a “good relationship” with Biden and praised the U.S. president for his defense of workers’ rights, noting that he supported a strike against automakers last year.
In September, the two leaders launched an initiative to promote workers’ rights and also agreed on topics such as the transition to greener energy, being founding members of the Global Biofuel Alliance.
Their differences include the war in Gaza, with Lula claiming that Israel is responsible for a “genocide” against the Palestinians. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the Brazilian leader that Washington disagreed with Lula’s statements.
Biden, in 2022, was one of the first world leaders to congratulate Lula on his electoral victory and supported him on January 8, 2023, when Bolsonaro supporters invaded and looted the presidential palace, Congress, and the Supreme Court of Brazil demanding a military coup.
These scenes are often compared to the U.S. Capitol invasion by Trump supporters on January 6, 2021, two weeks before Trump left office. Lula has previously called Bolsonaro a “copy” of Trump.
Source: Reuters