The public at the Expocentro in Balneário Camboriú was shouting “Lula, thief, you belong in prison!”, but the president of Argentina, Javier Milei, entered the stage decisively, jumping to the rhythm of his “musical anthem” “I am the King” .
Then he took a deep breath, picked up his papers, didn’t joke like he had on other occasions, adjusted his glasses and began his speech: he defended his friend, former president Jair Bolsonaro, who he defined as “judicially persecuted” in Brazil; he invested heavily against socialism and Latin American dictatorships; He talked about the wealth of the socialists’ families.
On Sunday afternoon (7), during his stellar presence at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), to which he was invited by Bolsonaro, Milei avoided escalating the conflict with the president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Days ago, Milei had called the PT leader “leftist”, “corrupt”, “communist”, “savage leftist”, triggering an unprecedented crisis with Argentina’s main partner in Mercosur and the main destination for Argentine exports.
On Saturday (6), the Brazilian government was very clear: Lula would be willing to take very strong diplomatic measures if Milei uttered offensive words against him at the Camboriú event. In principle, he would summon his ambassador in Buenos Aires, Julio Bitelli, to a meeting in Brasilia.
“Look at the judicial persecution that our friend Jair Bolsonaro is suffering in Brazil, and look at what is happening in Bolivia now: they are willing to carry out a false coup d’état to gain some points in an election,” continued Milei. Bolsonaro is accused, among other things, of alleged criminal association, embezzlement and money laundering in a case of attempted appropriation of valuable jewelry donated to the Brazilian presidency during his visits to Arab countries.
“The wind of change that began in Argentina travels the world and will reach all places where freedom is repressed. This is just the beginning.”
The libertarian also repeated Bolsonaro’s traditional catchphrase: “God, Homeland and Family”. And he highlighted: “Socialists never resolve the main problem, which is the vicious circle of the expansion of public spending and the consequent fiscal deficit,” he said, among several other references to the left.
“Argentina is experiencing an exceptional moment in its history, where society, for the first time in decades, rejects the statist model that was exhausted after accumulating mountains of misery,” he said.
Milei arrived in the state of Santa Catarina on Saturday (6) around 11pm, after announcing that he would not go to the Mercosur leaders’ summit this Monday. The Argentine president was received with hugs by Jair and Eduardo Bolsonaro and by the governors of São Paulo, Tarcísio de Freitas, and Santa Catarina, Jorginho Mello.
On Sunday (7) Milei met with a group of businessmen and politicians from the Brazilian right as part of the Conservative Action Conference (CPAC) – the same one that took Milei to meet Donald Trump in the USA – and which was taken to Brazil by Conservative-Liberal Institute, led by deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro, son of the former president, and businessman Sérgio Sant’Anna.