It turns out that left-wingers the world over, not least in Britain, may have rushed too quickly to delight in yesterday’s news that hard-right Brazillian president Bolsonaro had been defeated by the hard-left, former convict Lula.
Jeremy Corbyn said his victory is “I hope, a comeback for humanity”; McDonnell agreed with him, calling the election result the “progressive movement’s breakthrough”. Dawn Butler said it was the “winning politics of hope over division”. Zarah Sultana is currently partying in Brazil…
It turns out the new president may not be so welcomed so warmly by the people of Ukraine. While Zelenskyy diplomatically congratulated the new president, Lula has hardly indicated he plans on being an ally to the country in its heroic fight against Russia.
Zelenskyy is, according to Lula, “as responsible as Putin for the war”, calling him “a bit weird” and accusing him of waging war to “show up on TV”. He also claims in his interview with Time Magazine that people are “stimulating hate against Putin”…
“Can you really say that to Zelensky? He didn’t want a war it came to him.
“He did want war. If he didn’t want war, he would have negotiated a little more. That’s it. I criticized Putin when I was in Mexico City [in March], saying that it was a mistake to invade. But I don’t think anyone is trying to help create peace.
People are stimulating hate against Putin. That won’t solve things! We need to reach an agreement. But people are encouraging [the war]. You are encouraging this guy [Zelensky] and then he thinks he is the cherry on your cake. We should be having a serious conversation: “OK, you were a nice comedian. But let us not make war for you to show up on TV.” And we should say to Putin: “You have a lot of weapons, but you don’t need to use them on Ukraine. Let’s talk!”
He went on to argue that the west and Ukraine themselves are responsible for the war:
“it’s not just Putin who is guilty. The US and the EU are also guilty. What was the reason for the Ukraine invasion? NATO? Then the US and Europe should have said: “Ukraine won’t join NATO.” That would have solved the problem.
Lula is apparently a victory for democracy – just not if you’re Ukrainian…
Major South American economies including Brazil are eager to get on with UK trade deal negotiations “as soon as the new minister of external affairs takes office”. Mercosur, a trading bloc that includes Argentina and Brazil, the 9th largest economy in the world, is keen “to open right away a negotiation”, according to Brazil’s foreign minister, Jose Serra. Praising Britain’s new free-trading direction, Serra says Britain “has a more open economy and has a very important position in relation to investment in Brazil”. With the Real set to devalue later this year, Brazil’s desire to trade with Britain could even mean cheaper food, as beef exporters look set to swoop into newly deregulated agricultural import markets. So that’s the US, China, India, South America, Pakistan and South Korea who have signalled they want trade deals so far…
