The Argentine president, Javier Milei, has reiterated his attacks against the Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, whom he has again labeled as a "thief" and "corrupt," just a few days after launching similar disqualifications that had already provoked a serious diplomatic crisis between Buenos Aires and Brasília.
"He is a thief. He is corrupt. He was convicted for being a thief and corrupt. He was imprisoned, so it is also true what is said about being a convict. And not only that, he was released due to an administrative error in the procedure, not for being innocent. Therefore, he is a thief and he is corrupt," the Argentine head of state reiterated in an interview granted to the LN+ network.
When asked about the harshness of his words towards Lula, Milei defended his stance and insisted that "it is much milder to call a thief a thief than the act of stealing itself." With these new statements, the libertarian leader deepens the verbal escalation he has maintained with the Brazilian government.
Last Saturday, Milei traveled to the city of Sao Paulo to support the candidacy of Flávio Bolsonaro, son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, ahead of the October elections, in which he will face the current occupant of the Palácio da Alvorada. During that event, he referred to Lula as "convict," among other insults, and further ignited the diplomatic clash between the two countries.
In that same context, the Argentine president also attacked the Supreme Court judge and rapporteur of the case for the attempted coup against Jair Bolsonaro, Alexandre de Moraes, whom he labeled as "bald trash," within an intervention filled with outbursts in which, true to his provocative style, he lashed out at the "fucking leftists."
Meanwhile, this Sunday Lula has officially announced his candidacy for reelection in the October elections in Brazil. In his acceptance speech, he indicated that, if he achieves a new mandate, he will show a firmer version of his leadership to complete his political project. "I don't want a pacifist Lula. I want a tough Lula, who does what we (the PT) have not finished doing, because we have already taken care of the basics," he stated.
Thus, Lula presents himself again as a reference of the Latin American left in the face of the advance of new figures of the right in the region, among them Milei himself, who last weekend unleashed the current diplomatic clash with Brazil by insulting the Brazilian president during his tumultuous trip to support the candidacy of Lula's main opponent, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro.