On a trip to Italy for the G7 summit, PT member talks about Brazil’s priorities in the G20, world peace and trade agreements
The president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) said that “Democracy as we know it is at risk” with the advance of the right in the world. The statement was made in an interview with the Italian newspaper La Repubblicapublished this Friday (June 14, 2024).
According to the head of the Brazilian Executive, to reverse this scenario, “Democratic and left-wing parties must provide new political responses to today’s problems, in a language and form that can speak to people through today’s media”.
As possible answers to the question, Lula stated that Democrats need to “protect workers in the new job market, defined by digitalization and artificial intelligence”. In addition, they must get closer to people in neighborhoods, workplaces and social networks.
According to the PT member, despite the concerns, the results of the elections for the European Parliament “demonstrate that in Europe there is still a majority of democratic individuals in favor of integration”.
The right emerged as the big winner in the elections for the European Parliament, which ended on Sunday (June 9). Nationalist groups gained seats and will have more weight. However, the center-right European People’s Party, of which the president of European CouncilUrsula von der Leyen, is a member, maintained the largest bench and expanded its staff.
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Read more topics covered in the interview:
BRAZIL IN THE G7 – “I will discuss some of our priorities for the Brazilian G20 presidency, such as inequality, climate change and global governance reform.”
G20 – for the event that will be held on November 18th and 19th in Rio, Lula mentioned:
- the creation of 2 working groups: against hunger and poverty, open to all countries, including those that are not part of the G20; and mobilization for climate change to achieve the objectives of the Paris Agreement;
- highlighted that the country wants “expand South-South cooperation”, with new routes for trade and investment;
- reform “aging global institutions”. She said again that “The UN is weak, and the countries that have waged wars in recent decades are precisely the permanent members of the Security Council. It is necessary to reform the UN, expanding the Council and removing veto power”;
- support the taxation of the super-rich;
- support “measures to tackle the debt of developing economies”, converting “unpayable debts on infrastructure assets and projects, especially those for energy transitions in Africa, Asia and Latin America”.
RUSSIA-UKRAINE PEACE AGREEMENT – “Brazil condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine. However, we believe that there will be no military solution to this conflict, nor that any country can negotiate peace alone without considering the other side.”;
RUSSIAN SHIPS IN CUBA – “This episode, which reminds me of the Cold War, doesn’t worry me”;
PEACE IN GAZA – “I don’t know if the Israeli Prime Minister [Benjamin Netanyahu] is interested in your success, but I hope you are. The whole world anxiously awaits the end of the war and the release of the hostages. (…) The ceasefire must be the 1st step towards the only way out, that is, the solution of creating 2 independent and viable states”;
COMMERCIAL AGREEMENTS – the Brazilian president said “happy” with the expansion of business with China. “TWe will also expand our relations with India, Africa, Mexico, Arab countries and our neighbors in South America”, he added. Lula criticized the slowness in negotiations for the trade agreement between Mercosur and the European Union: “Europe has been negotiating an agreement with Mercosur for 20 years and has not yet closed it”.
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