Lula’s gaffes are dulling Brazil’s G20 shine - The Economist (fevereiro 2024)

 A matéria abaixo é da Economist de FEVEREIRO DE 2024!!!

Não temos ideia de que tenha havido algum progresso. Lula já decidiu que Brasil ele quer? Parece que sim, já escolheu o seu lado, e não é obviamente o do Ocidente ou de outros países médios...

The Americas | Bringing back Brazil
Lula’s gaffes are dulling Brazil’s G20 shine
Its relationships with the West are healing. But Brazil has not decided what kind of country it will be
The Economist, Feb 27th 2024
São Paulo

            The summit is not until November, but the meetings have already begun. Foreign ministers arrived in Rio de Janeiro on February 21st to inaugurate Brazil’s presidency of the G20, an intergovernmental talking shop for countries representing over 80% of global GDP. Finance ministers and central-bank governors held their own opening pow-wow in São Paulo on February 28th and 29th. Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (known as Lula), aims to use his year at the helm of the G20 to convince the world of his most repeated promise, that “Brazil is back”.
        The world’s ninth-largest economy spent four years prior to Lula’s inauguration as something of an international pariah. His predecessor, far-right populist Jair Bolsonaro, allowed destructive development of the Amazon rainforest and aligned himself with autocrats. He told Brazilians to “stop being a country of sissies” during the covid-19 pandemic, urged them to take hydroxychloroquine, a malaria drug, and speculated that vaccines might cause AIDS (they do not). Mr Bolsonaro made few international trips and pulled out of hosting COP25, the UN’s climate summit.
        After being in power between 2003 and 2010, the first year of Lula’s third term in office has, for the most part, been a repudiation of conspiracy and insularity. He has already made 27 foreign trips, more than Mr Bolsonaro did through his entire term, including to the G7 in Japan, the UN General Assembly in New York, and high-profile bilateral visits to Washington and Beijing.
        Relations with the United States have improved, even if more in terms of goodwill than substantive cooperation. Lula and President Joe Biden have bonded over attacks on government buildings by their predecessors’ followers, and their shared support for labour rights. Brazilian officials want to emulate Mr Biden’s industrial policy.         Speaking in Rio on February 21st, Antony Blinken, America’s secretary of state, proclaimed that ties between the two countries were “stronger than ever”.

        Economic revival after a decade-long slump has lent Lula more heft. Analysts initially reckoned GDP might grow by just 0.8% in 2023, the year he took office. Official figures, due to be published as The Economist went to press, are expected to show it grew by 3%. Growth is likely to slacken in 2024 due to a weak harvest, but Elijah Oliveros-Rosen of S&P, a ratings agency, thinks Brazil is relatively well placed for strong performance

Gift of the gaffe
        The most generous interpretation is that remarks of this kind are a cynical ploy to galvanise the leftist base of Lula’s Workers’ Party. Even if that is working, it is having severe side-effects. As well as irking Western allies, Lula has forged common ground on which Brazil’s right wing and alienated centrists have come together.
        On February 25th Mr Bolsonaro called on his followers to march in São Paulo against an investigation into his role in the events of January 8th 2023, when his supporters attempted to overturn the results of the presidential election. Mr Bolsonaro and thousands of his fans, many of whom are evangelical Christians who support Israel, arrived at the march draped in Israeli flags. Senators and congressmen who had been attempting to avoid association with Mr Bolsonaro felt compelled to show up in the wake of Lula’s outburst.
        These inconsistencies risk weakening the overall effect of Lula’s foreign policy, says Rubens Ricupero, a former Brazilian ambassador. Lula wants Brazil to be all things to all people: a friend of the West and a leader of the global south, a defender of the environment and a global oil power, a promoter of peace and an ally for autocrats. Brazil may well be back, but the part it is playing on the world stage is murkier than it should be.