MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Lula to visit Madrid on Monday to meet Sánchez, two weeks before Spain’s election

The visit will also include a political event at which Lula will expressly back the Socialist candidate, and Sánchez’s team had spent two weeks trying to arrange it

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will visit Madrid on Monday, November 16, to meet Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, less than two weeks before the snap general election on November 29, in which Sánchez is seeking re-election. It will be Lula’s first visit to Spain since he won Brazil’s election on October 25.

According to the Spanish government’s official statement, the two will hold a bilateral meeting at the Moncloa Palace to discuss relations between the two countries and coordination of initiatives such as Democracy Always and the Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty. Lula will stop in Madrid on his way back from the UN climate summit, COP31, in Antalya, Turkey, and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Manila, where he will also make a state visit to the Philippines.

According to the Spanish press, the visit will also include a political event at which Lula will expressly back the Socialist candidate, and Sánchez’s team had spent two weeks trying to arrange it. Sánchez has presented Lula’s re-election and the Democratic victory in the US midterms as proof that the advance of the radical right can be halted.

CNN Brasil reported that Lula will be accompanied by congressman André Janones, the architect of the digital strategy that helped his electoral comeback. The Spanish government and the Socialist Party insist that Janones is not advising Sánchez’s campaign and there are no plans for him to do so.

Polls show a slight recovery for the Socialists, so far insufficient to govern. A survey by 40dB for El País and Cadena SER shows the Socialist Party up almost two points, but the People’s Party and Vox would together win a comfortable absolute majority of more than 190 seats; 176 are needed to govern. The state-run Centre for Sociological Research shows a stronger Socialist recovery.

Neither Lula nor Sánchez attended the Ibero-American Summit held in Madrid last week. According to El País, Lula needed to rest and recover his voice after the campaign. Sánchez spoke by phone on Thursday with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum about bilateral relations and the outcome of the summit.