Opinion of Luiz Ignacio Lula de Silva

[Red Velvet]

Meanwhile, Brazilian Progressives are like:

“I wish Domestic Policy Lula was the same badass from International Policy Lula”

Love him for standing up against Israel actions and every International position he holds, but we wish he had same energy standing up against the Big Center crooks in congress instead of the moderate conciliatory stuff, opening up our wallets whenever these elected devils pressure for more money and power.

The opposite of this forum.

[Red Velvet]

Elements of whackjobbery will always be inherent in the third world, because these officials ultimately reflect the feelings and emotions of their constituents.

Just sayin'

Anti-western-imperialism social-conservative anti-racist leftists are an important group to most left wing coalitions in the region. Any left wing politician that wants to win a presidential race in the region has to somehow appeal to them.

There are no social conservatives in Lula's coalition. PT candidates for executive branches say that they don't support the legalization of abortion and cannabis when they are asked, in order to not loose some important votes. But the anti-PT candidates are the ones who use the anti-abortion as a campaign issue. Collor 1989, Serra 2010 and Bolsonaro 2018&2022 did it.
As I mentioned in another thread, Latin America has different polarization in comparison to Eastern Europe, Middle East and Asia. Here, the social progressives are on the same side of the ones who support a more active public sector in the economy and a more independent foreign policy. The social conservatives are on the same side of the ones who support laissez-faire and automatic aligment with the US.
Peru is one of a few exceptions, in which there is an important social conservative left, as we could see in the election of Pedro Castilo.

It varies from country to country tbh. LatAm is not a monolith.

Peru is way more socially conservative than the average LatAm country, so that’s why the Left in there has to be somewhat socially conservative in order to exist and have relevance.

Argentina otoh is one of the most socially progressive ones, so the Left often talks very openly about similar issues that exist in Western countries, such as abortion for example, with pro-choice people going to streets and WINNING on the issue.

Brazil is neither a Peru or an Argentina imo, but somewhere in-between. Not nearly as socially conservative as Peru but also not as progressive as Argentina. And Brazilian Left naturally reflects that.

I fully agree Lula’s coalition is mostly progressive (not unanimously though) but I would question you about social progressiveness being a main priority for everyone.

Abortion or Weed Legalization are issues the executive doesn’t even dare to position because it understands that it can be widely despised by a majority of population, including people in their electorate.

Lula’s supreme court ministers were nominated based on who Lula trusts and who were openly NEUTRAL on these social issues, not being the Identity Politics types that progressives were hoping for.

But yeah, that “Social Conservative” parameter is very subjective for Latin America and not really fitting on a broader sense, I believe the poster you’re responding has this impression because they’re from Peru and their Left is by nature more conservative than ours (even if I wouldn’t call us exactly progressives either).

Like, if Peru Left is “Conservative” and Argentina Left is “Progressive”, best way to describe Brazil Left is as “Ashamed Progressives”.

The high-educated Base would surely love for the parties to be progressive as hell but they know that pragmatically that is impossible because of the average of where the population is. So often the left parties can cater to some conservative positions as well.

[Red Velvet]

Since apparently my posts don’t show up in the Israel war thread, I will post here:

After Lula’s comments comparing the Holocaust to what’s happening in Gaza today, the USA government announced a possible ceasefire on Monday, also talking about Israel having to pause what’s going on the risk of “losing international support”

No other existing figure in the world deserves a Nobel Peace Prize more than Lula. A geopolitics genius who knows the right timing to conciliate and the timing to make a stand and pressure.

[Red Velvet]

Regardless of what you think of his policies, let's not forget that he is literally a convicted money launderer.

You clearly are ignorant on the matter because even if the process wasn’t undemocratic and biased, that’s not what they jailed him for.

[Red Velvet]

Holocaust denier, HP. Probably still better for Brazil and the environment than his fascist alternative, and the best way of dealing with someone like him is reminding them how thoroughly irrelevant they are on the global stage.

How is he a Holocaust denier? I'm pretty sure he'd answer yes to the question of whether Nazi Germany killed 5-7 million Jews.

He said what Israel is doing is a "unique evil" on par with the Holocaust. It was clearly hyperbolic but nowhere near denial. Of course, that didn't stop the usual suspects from going into a tailspin.

Glad he's holding his own in this poll too. It is clear the majority see beyond the very tedious and false antisemitism allegations.

I like that he’s losing approval here though, it’s a good sign. Never understood why people loved him when his geopolitical instinct was always pretty much 95% aligned with mine and the traditional left lol

I mean, I kinda get it because of the Bolsonaro effect. Even here where I live, many liberals that were enthusiastic about Bolsonaro in 2018 warmed up somewhat to Lula in 2022.