Milei slams ‘communist lefty’ Lula, revels in Brazil election result

Argentina’s President Javier Milei on Monday hailed Flávio Bolsonaro's first-round lead in Brazil's presidential election as a win for the Latin American right as he again branded incumbent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva a “Communist lefty.”

“A communist lefty loses to someone from the right and the markets celebrate with big gains... Impoverishing lefties, get out of the way, we're trying to make the continent shine. MAGA!" Milei wrote on X, describing the result as “"TEXTBOOK...!!!”

Bolsonaro, of the Liberal Party (PL) and son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, took 47.03 percent on Sunday to Lula's 45.16 percent. Neither cleared the majority needed to win outright, setting up a run-off on October 25. 

Analysts and markets were surprised by the result, with pre-election polling showing Lula with a thin lead. Brazilian shares trading in New York rose around 10 percent in early morning trading. 

Milei celebrated the result on Sunday: "Congratulations, dear friend Flávio Bolsonaro, on this historic election against the communist Lula," he wrote,  adding that “freedom is advancing in Brazil'.

In a television interview, Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno questioned whether Lula would stay in the race.

"Lula must be thinking: 'Do I want to get into this dance?' Will there be a run-off?" Quirno said in comments to the LN+ channel.

Quirno suggested the votes of third-placed Augusto Cury (2.90 percent) and fourth-placed Renan Santos (2.26 percent) could now prove key. 

"If the candidates who come after the top two are all favourable to Bolsonaro, is he going to hand Bolsonaro a resounding victory?" he asked. 

A favourable position for Bolsonaro in Congress, Quirno added, would make the result "much harder to reverse.”

Argentina’s foreign minister said the result “reaffirms President Milei's global and regional influence,” citing recent victories for Daniel Noboa in Ecuador, Rodrigo Paz in Bolivia and José Antonio Kast in Chile.

Milei’s comments are the latest chapter in a bitter feud with Lula. 

In July, Argentina’s leader travelled to São Paulo for the launch of Bolsonaro's candidacy, where he called Lula a “thief” and “socialist garbage.” 

In August, Brasília withdrew its ambassador from Buenos Aires and asked Argentina's representative in Brazil's capital to return home. 

Last week in New York, Milei said he hoped Brazil would abandon a “decadent socialist course” and “embrace the ideas of freedom” again. 

Pro-Lula politicians criticised Milei for openly backing the right-wing leader and acting like the race is run.

"Nothing is settled in Brazil," said national deputy Victoria Tolosa Paz, a lawmaker for the Peronist opposition caucus Unión por la Patria.

Tolosa Paz argued that Lula can still win the run-off and turn an election around.