Governments from at least 87 countries have already confirmed Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s victory in the weekend’s Brazilian elections, either on social media or in official telegrams. The number will rise further this Tuesday, according to UOL, with dozens of officials looking for ways to speak to the winner of the election.
In Itamaraty, the avalanche of recognition was received as a clear sign for the international community that there are no electoral problems and that from now on it is Lula and not Bolsonaro.
If the world’s leading democracies and some of Bolsonaro’s main rivals rushed to recognize the far-right president’s defeat, it was the behavior of Bolsonaro’s international allies that surprised the wing closest to the ultra-conservative movement.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni congratulated Lula on social media. He has just won the elections in Italy and for the first time in decades the heir to the fascist movement has seized power in Rome.
In his victory, Meloni received enthusiastic messages from the Bolsonaro clan in the hope that the new ally would do the same in Brazil. However, this did not happen, and the Italian woman hoped that she and Lula would continue to work together in the name of “historical friendship” between the two peoples.
The ultra-conservative Katalin Novak, the president of Hungary, who was in Brazil a few months ago, was more moderate. He did not mention Lula’s name on social media. But he made it clear that Budapest recognizes the PT’s victory and wishes him success in the “presidential election”, she said. Over the years, Hungary has become the example Bolsonarism has adopted to silence the press, civil society, control other powers and shatter democracy.
Even Bolsonaro’s gesture pointing to the recognition of Jerusalem as the capital in Israel and Brazil’s change of votes in the UN in favor of the Israelis did not cause the foreign government to hesitate about the Brazilian elections. On election day, First Lady Michelle Bolsonaro went to vote wearing a shirt stamped with the Israeli flag, a sign of the Brazilian evangelical movement.
But on social media, Isaac Herzog congratulated Lula. “We warmly recommend your visit to Israel in light of your previous tenure,” he said. “We hope to strengthen our excellent ties and cooperate on a topic that interests us above all: the environment”,
In Poland, also ruled by ultra-conservatives, the authorities did not hesitate to welcome Lula’s victory.
Widespread recognition did not occur by chance. After weeks of detailed coordination, Western democracies rushed to congratulate Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on his victory via telegrams and messages on social media late Sunday night. The aim was to create a safety strip that would prevent Jair Bolsonaro from repeating Donald Trump’s strategy and questioning the fairness of the election. Another fear was that Bolivia’s scenario of chaos would be repeated.
It was to congratulate Lula and show that what Biden, Emmanuel Macron, Olaf Scholz and many others have done is confident in the electoral process and the results of electronic voting machines. But there is a second message: they now accept that Lula has the legitimate power in Brazil.
International organizations such as the Organization of American States, the UN and the European Union have also expressed themselves.
Bolsonaro’s isolation came to an end this Monday, when Brazil’s biggest non-Western allies, China and Russia, made it clear that they wanted broad partnerships with Lula.
In less than 24 hours, a kind of sanitary cordon was set up, as Lula’s advisers noted that the search for presidents elected by governments and international organizations exploded.
An example is the UN Climate Conference in Egypt. UOL found that foreign delegations had sent extra negotiators to have the task of calling the Brazilian transit team to begin negotiating new deals.
The time to talk to Lula’s Brazil is already filling a broad agenda, according to diplomats.
There was still hope among Europeans that Bolsonaro would allow a transition team and even Lula to go to the G-20 summit in Indonesia in November. But in Itamaraty this possibility is seen as “impossible”.
But at the G-20, Brazilian diplomats already admit that if Bolsonaro goes, it will be difficult to hold any meetings for the defeated president. Especially if you maintain the stance of not recognizing defeat and initiating a transition.
source: Noticias
