Brazil’s government recalled its ambassador to Argentina for consultations after President Javier Milei launched a fierce attack on President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and a Supreme Court justice during the kick-off rally for Brazil’s leading right-wing presidential candidate on Saturday.
Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira also summoned Argentina’s ambassador to express Brazil’s “revulsion” over Milei’s actions, the ministry said in a statement Sunday.
Recalling an ambassador for consultations as a demonstration of displeasure is considered a strong diplomatic gesture and had never happened before between Brazil and Argentina, including during periods of military rule in both countries. Ambassadors had been recalled to exchange views in the past.
On Saturday, Milei attended the event that formally confirmed Flávio Bolsonaro as the presidential candidate as his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, is under house arrest after being convicted over an attempted coup.
Milei said Flávio “can stop” Lula and referred to the leftist leader as a “convict” and a “thief.” The Argentine libertarian also attacked Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who oversaw the coup trial that resulted in Jair Bolsonaro’s prison sentence of 27 years, and three months.
Milei called Moraes a “bald piece of trash” after the justice denied him permission to visit Bolsonaro under house arrest.
In its statement, Brazil’s Foreign Ministry said it was unprecedented for a another nation’s president “to hurl insults at the head of state” and governing institutions while on Brazilian soil.
Supreme Court Chief Justice Luiz Edson Fachin said Milei’s comments amounted to “a disrespectful reference to a justice of the country’s highest court, made on Brazilian soil.” He reaffirmed “the full independence of Brazil’s Judiciary” and said he “deplores statements incompatible with the civility that should characterise relations between states.”
Edinho Silva, president of Lula’s Workers’ Party, said in a statement that “no public authority in Brazil is above criticism, provided it is made in an appropriate manner and at the appropriate time.” He added that Milei “showed himself unworthy of the office he holds.”
In an interview with Radio Mitre on Sunday, the Argentine President denied he was interfering in Brazil’s election and accused Lula of meddling in Argentina’s 2023 vote, when the leftist leader deployed a team of nearly two dozen campaign strategists to help Milei’s opponent.
“And then they come and talk about interference, when they played a very active role in the 2023 campaign,” Milei said.
The Argentine leader also complained that he had not been allowed to visit “my friend Jair Bolsonaro,” while Lula, whom he again called an “ex-convict,” was granted permission by an Argentine judge last year to visit former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, Milei’s chief domestic rival, who is under house arrest following a corruption conviction.
Brazil’s government has also been dealing with what it sees as US interference in its election.
On Friday, the Foreign Ministry denied visas to two senior US State Department officials whom the Donald Trump administration had planned to send to scrutinise the fairness and integrity of the country’s electoral system ahead of the Oct. 4 presidential election.
Without directly mentioning Trump or Milei, Lula said at a public event on Sunday that “here in Brazil, we do not accept anyone sticking their nose where they haven’t been invited, because Brazil knows how to take care of itself.”
by Daniel Carvalho, Bloomberg
