Javier Milei will not apologize to Lula and adds another layer

Argentina’s ultra-liberal President Javier Milei refused on Friday to apologize to his Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva as the latter had asked, instead calling him a “little leftist” at the“inflamed ego”. “We must rise above these trivialities because the interests of Argentines and Brazilians are more important than the inflamed ego of a little leftist”declared Javier Milei, invited by the television channel LN+ to respond to the request for an apology made on Wednesday by Lula.

The Brazilian president said he would refuse to talk to his Argentine counterpart until the latter presented his «excuses» for the “many stupidities” which he said he had uttered, without specifying what he was referring to. “The problem is I called him corrupt. Wasn’t he imprisoned for being corrupt? I called him a communist. Isn’t he a communist? Since when do you have to apologize for telling the truth? Or are we so sick of political correctness that we can no longer say anything to the left, even if it is true?Javier Milei said on Friday.

“Make mischief”

Lula, who did not attend Milei’s inauguration last December, to which former far-right Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022) was invited, to whom the virulent Argentine president claims to be close, had estimated on Wednesday that “Argentina is a very important country for Brazil and Brazil is very important for Argentina. It is not a President of the Republic who is going to sow discord.”. The two men greeted each other cordially during their recent meeting at the G7 summit in Italy but did not engage in private exchanges. They will meet in Asuncion at the beginning of July during the Mercosur summit, a trade bloc of which they are major partners with Paraguay and Uruguay and Bolivia.