The French president Emmanuel Macron fly in Brazil visiting Squid for three days, from Tuesday 26 to Thursday 28 March, full of events spread across four cities. A tour de force which gives the idea of the importance of the meeting, which is placed in the midst of international crises in Ukraine e Israel, without forgetting theclimate agenda in the presence of an agreement, that between the two presidents, which had already been born under the Bolsonaro government when it was Lula and not the then president who was received with full honors at the Elysée. A strategic agreement to strengthen the Europe-South America axis, even in a phase in which the commercial agreement between the two entities has stalled (and precisely because of Macron), but above all to create a trait d'union between the block of G7 and the global south, to use an expression that the Brazilian president increasingly proposes in his speeches to justify his not always pro-Western geopolitical positions.
Macron in Brazil, agreements and differences with Lula: what they are
The two leaders meet at a delicate moment especially due to the two ongoing wars, on which they have different, if not opposing, positions: Macron, together with Europe and the USA, he convincingly supports Ukraine against the Russian invasion and he remains cautious on the Israeli-Palestinian issue, on which he has instead expressed himself very harshly Squid, speaking openly about genocide in Gaza and for this he attracted some criticism even from his allies. The Brazilian president, in his third mandate after two consecutive ones from 2003 to 2011, is increasingly closer to the Russia-China axis (especially to the latter, of which Brazil is the main commercial partner) and for this reason he is leading the pacifist front on the Ukrainian conflict, avoiding explicitly condemning the initiatives of Vladimir Putin.
Macron and Lula: decline in consensus for both
Indeed, Lula is a supporter of the so-called new world order, to the point that he has pushed to welcome it among the Brics not only a partner like Argentina but also Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and even Iran, with the intention of involving Venezuela in the future Nicolas Maduro, whom the Brazilian president considers a credible interlocutor and not, like the rest of the international community, a dictator. This is also probably why Lula is not going through a great moment of consensus: today, according to the latest polls, the approval rate has dropped to equal the disapproval rate. And Macron is not doing any better either: on the eve of the European elections his popularity is declining and his recent positions have not convinced at international tables.
But the latter, in reality, is precisely one of the reasons why the two leaders get along: in Brazil la France it is considered, among the G7 countries, the most independent compared to the USA in foreign policy, and therefore the ideal partner to find support in mediations. Also because this year the South American country has the presidency of the G20, whose main meeting will be held in November in Rio de Janeiro, but collateral meetings between ministers have already begun and the topics on the table are very hot: wars, climate, but also a strong point that the Lula government would like to pass, namely a global tax on large assets.
Macron in Brazil: what he will talk about with Lula
Returning to Macron's visit in recent days, the meeting points are not over. We will also talk about Haiti, a former French colony that is experiencing an unprecedented civil war and humanitarian crisis and completely overlooked by the European press. But above all, the two presidents will clarify the agreement EU-Mercosur, which seemed to be on the home stretch at the end of 2023 and which instead decidedly stalled. Indeed, it probably failed precisely under pressure from Macron and the women farmers' protests of half of Europe, who did not take kindly to the resistance put up by South American economies in adhering to environmental parameters which are instead rigidly imposed on this side of the ocean.
Last but not least, the theme of climate and defense of the Amazon rainforest. On this, in general terms, the two presidents will agree; Moreover, it is one of the stops on Macron's tour Belem, where a decisive COP meeting will be held in 2025. However, France has recently announced that it will not participate in the financing of the Amazon Fund, created 16 years ago by Norway to contribute economically to the protection of the planet's lungs and to which Germany, the European Union, the United States and the United Kingdom belong. Paris said he will do his part in other ways.
