MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Milei calls Lula a “leftist thief” and says he hopes he will not “steal” Brazil’s election

It is not the first time Milei has called Lula a “thief”. On October 7 he posted an image of the Brazilian president with that word on Instagram

Argentine President Javier Milei attacked his Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva again on Tuesday, accusing him of a “dirty campaign” and saying he hoped Lula would not try to “steal” Sunday’s presidential runoff, in which he faces Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, whom Milei has publicly backed.

“Progressive male chauvinists… Then they go around accusing all their opponents of misogyny… The mask is slipping on these criminals… I hope his latest dirty campaign trick doesn’t include stealing the election… Leftist thief,” Milei wrote on X. The message was accompanied by a clip from a television interview in which Lula defended the shorter working week, approved last week by the Senate, arguing that “a woman cannot work six days a week and rest one, because on that day she has to clean the house”.

It is not the first time Milei has called Lula a “thief”. On October 7 he posted an image of the Brazilian president with that word on Instagram, and in July he called him a “jailbird” and a “thief”, prompting Brazil to recall its ambassador in Buenos Aires for consultations, according to the EFE news agency. Lula was convicted of corruption in the Lava Jato investigation and spent 580 days in prison, but the Supreme Federal Court annulled his convictions in 2021, restoring his political rights. The Brazilian government had not commented on the new message.

On Sunday, in the first runoff debate, Lula asked Bolsonaro whether he intends to apply “Milei’s chainsaw” to cut public spending. Bolsonaro won the first round with 47.03% of the vote against Lula’s 45.16%, and polls show a statistical tie.

Brazil is Argentina’s main trading partner, and the two countries are Mercosur’s largest economies.