Lula da Silva | The extreme right twitches Lula’s visit to the Portuguese Parliament

2023-04-25 14:17:29

The tension over the visit to Portugal of the President of Brazil, Lula da Silva, reached its peak this Tuesday during his speech at the Parliamenton the anniversary of the Carnation Revolution. Shortly after beginning his speech, the deputies of the far-right party Chega, who entered the chamber minutes after the entry of the Brazilian president, have shown ukrainian flags and banners accusing him of corrupt and they have hit the bench in protest at their presence on such an important date for the Portuguese.

The president of Parliament, the socialist Augusto Santos Silva, has intervened shortly after to reprimand the ultra deputies. “Enough of insults, enough of degrading the institutions, stop embarrassing Portugal“, said Santos Silva, visibly irritated. It is not the first time that the president of the Chamber has faced the extreme right, the third political force in the chamber with 12 deputies. “I apologize on behalf of the Portuguese Parliament for the incident and I thank you for your courage and education”, he added after Lula da Silva’s speech.

The president of Brazil has avoided directly confronting the ultra deputies during his speech and has limited himself to criticize authoritarian attitudes: “Long live freedom, long live democracy, and not fascism”, he blurted out to close his speech. As he left the chamber, Lula da Silva assured that he was used to this type of protest but threw a dart at the extreme right: “When they have nothing to do, they do these ridiculous scenes. I don’t know how they are going to look at their children and their parents when they get home.”

protests over the visit

The visit of the Brazilian president during the celebrations for the 49th anniversary of the Carnation Revolution has been marked by controversy since it was announced. So much He arrives like the party liberal initiative –the fourth force in Parliament– showed their disagreement with the presence of Lula da Silva in the solemn session in the Chamber, something that forced him to exclude his speech from the commemorative acts for the end of the dictatorship, which have been held later. The controversial words of Lula da Silva shortly before the visit, in which he criticized the supply of arms to Ukraine by the European Union and the United StatesThey added fuel to the fire.

Despite the criticism, the Brazilian leader has been forceful in his condemnation of the Russian invasion. “The Carnation Revolution shows us that a military policy that confronts a people that fights for freedom will not be able to win. No solution will be lasting if it is not based on dialogue and political negotiation. We condemn the violation of the territorial integrity in Ukraine“, assured Lula da Silva, who highlighted the ties that unite Brazil and Portugal in the defense of the democratic values.

While the tension increased inside the chamber, outside hundreds of supporters and detractors of Lula da Silva gathered in two separate manifestations by security forces. Despite initial concern, the two groups have not met and there have been no violent clashes. The tension between defenders and detractors of the president, however, is far from subsiding in Portugal, where close to 300,000 Braziliansthe largest foreign community in the country.

state visit

Beyond the controversies and protests, the visit of the Brazilian leader to Portugal has served to resume the bilateral relations between the two countries and to bring the Latin American giant closer to the European Union. One of the main issues discussed during these days has been the trade agreement with Mercosur, which has been paralyzed for months. Lula da Silva’s objective is to unblock this agreement as soon as possible with the support of Portugal and of spainwhere he has gone this Tuesday to meet with the president, Phttps://www.elperiodico.com/es/internacional/20230425/tension-extrema-derecha-lula-da-silva-parlamento-portugal-86467370zand with the king Philip VI.

With this visit, Lula da Silva continues with his strategy of putting Brazil back in the international scene after four years of isolation under the Government of Jair Bolsonaro. The Brazilian leader will try to find a balance between the United States and the EU, on the one hand, and with China, on the other, to reinforce his role as mediator in the resolution of conflicts and in the reinforcement of commercial and diplomatic relations between the main economic powers. One of its main objectives is to achieve the entry of Brazil as a permanent member in the United Nations Security Council. Something that already has the support of Portugal.