\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t Members of the party led by Brazilian President Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva demanded the judiciary investigate the expenses and the nature of his Argentine counterpart Javier Milei\u2019s trip to S\u00e3o Paulo over the weekend, on the grounds that there are \u201cindications of undue foreign interference\u201d in Brazil\u2019s presidential elections scheduled for October 4.<\/p>\n
The left-wing Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT, or Workers\u2019 Party in English), currently led by Lula, formally requested Monday that the Attorney General\u2019s Office investigate who paid for Milei\u2019s trip, during which he met with far-right presidential candidate Fl\u00e1vio Bolsonaro to express his support.<\/p>\n
On Saturday, Milei attended Brazil\u2019s Liberal Party convention, during which Bolsonaro\u2019s candidacy was officially launched. During the event, Milei insulted President Da Silva while giving a speech, calling him a \u201cthief\u201d and a \u201ctotalitarian\u201d and saying that Bolsonaro is the only one who can save Brazil from \u201csocialism.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Brazilian Foreign Ministry has since recalled its ambassador in Buenos Aires for consultations, and Minister Mauro Vieira met with Argentine Ambassador to Brazil Daniel Raimondi to express the government\u2019s rejection of Milei\u2019s comments and demand explanations.<\/p>\n
Since the incident, Milei has continued to share posts mocking or insulting Lula. In turn, Da Silva decided to ignore the Argentine president\u2019s comments. On Monday, when asked by journalists about Milei\u2019s statement, Lula replied, \u201cWho is that guy?\u201d<\/p>\n
You may also be interested in: Milei mistakes provocation for diplomacy<\/p>\n
Foreign influence The PT asked the Attorney General\u2019s Office to look into whether party funds from the Liberal Party and the S\u00e3o Paulo government were used to cover lodging, security, and local transportation for Milei during his visit, given that the Argentine president also met with Governor Tarc\u00edsio de Freitas and S\u00e3o Paulo City Mayor Ricardo Nunes.<\/p>\n
The Brazilian ruling party said that a potential use of government resources to accommodate Milei during a political visit could undermine the normalcy, legitimacy, and equality of opportunity in the 2026 presidential race.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis series of actions casts the symbolic and political weight of foreign authority over the Brazilian electoral contest, while at the same time straining institutions essential to the functioning of the democratic rule of law, such as the Federal Supreme Court and the head of the national executive branch itself,\u201d the PT said.<\/p>\n
Political coalition Brasil da Esperan\u00e7a (Brazil of Hope), formed by the PT and other ally parties, also filed a formal complaint on Monday with Electoral Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet, requesting an investigation of the circumstances of Milei\u2019s trip.<\/p>\n
The complaint seeks to determine how the visit was funded, including whether resources from the S\u00e3o Paulo state, S\u00e3o Paulo city, the Brazilian Liberal Party or the Argentine state were used, and whether those expenses complied with Brazilian electoral and political party laws.<\/p>\n
They argued that Milei\u2019s activities in S\u00e3o Paulo constitute a form of institutional interference in Brazil\u2019s electoral process, as his participation in the Liberal Party\u2019s convention took place during an official visit to the country and directly benefited a specific candidate, local newspaper O Globo reported.<\/p>\n
You may also be interested in: Claudia Sheinbaum rejects Milei\u2019s claim on Mexico financing \u2018anti-Argentina campaign\u2019<\/p>\n
Potential misuse of public resources The complaint also targets Liberal Party President Valdemar Costa Neto, Fl\u00e1vio Bolsonaro, and S\u00e3o Paulo Governor Tarc\u00edsio de Freitas. The coalition said that there may have been an overlap between the official state agenda and party affairs, given Milei held a bilateral meeting with De Freitas before attending the political event.<\/p>\n
In addition, the complaint stated that Milei went beyond a political statement by delivering a speech in defense of Fl\u00e1vio Bolsonaro, including an explicit call for Brazilians to vote for the far-right candidate, given Milei said Bolsonaro was the only one who could \u201cstop Lula.\u201d<\/p>\n
The document stressed that there is no public information regarding who covered airfare, lodging, transportation, security, logistics, and other expenses related to the Argentine president\u2019s participation in the convention.<\/p>\n
In Argentina, two lawyers have also filed a judicial complaint against Milei for alleged misuse of public funds and violating his duties as a public official, saying that the president used Argentina\u2019s public resources to take part in activities related to the neighboring country\u2019s Liberal Party.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The complaint, filed by Jos\u00e9 Magioncalda and Juan Mart\u00edn Fazio, states that Milei used \u201cthe presidential aircraft, the official delegation, and public treasury funds\u201d to attend a party event in the Federative Republic of Brazil in support of Fl\u00e1vio Bolsonaro\u2019s candidacy, which constituted a diversion of public resources from their intended purpose.<\/p>\n
\u201cState resources were diverted to satisfy the interests of a political faction, while also causing severe damage to bilateral diplomatic relations,\u201d the lawyers said in the document.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Members of the party led by Brazilian President Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva demanded the judiciary investigate the expenses and the nature of his Argentine counterpart Javier Milei\u2019s trip to S\u00e3o Paulo over the weekend, on the grounds that there are \u201cindications of undue foreign interference\u201d in Brazil\u2019s presidential elections scheduled for October 4. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":97170,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[780,81,61,54,1741,306],"tags":[1861,596,89,183,11204,904],"class_list":["post-97169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brazil","category-international-relations","category-javier-milei","category-latin-america","category-lula-da-silva","category-world","tag-brazil","tag-international-relations","tag-javier-milei","tag-latin-america","tag-lula-da-silva","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}