Milei is lone South American leader yet to recognise Lula’s win

Argentina's President Javier Milei was the only South American leader who, by Monday morning, had yet to recognise Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s victory in Brazil’s election, echoing the silence of US President Donald Trump. 

Lula pulled off a historic comeback, defeating Flávio Bolsonaro by more than four million votes in Sunday’s election after finishing in second place during the first round of voting. Throughout Sunday night, congratulations poured in from around the world, except notably from Washington and Buenos Aires. 

As recently as Saturday, Milei called Lula a “corrupt thief” on social media and accused him of running a “dirty campaign,” even though the libertarian leader had campaigned in Brazil for Bolsonaro. Echoing his father, former president Jair Bolsonaro who lost to Lula in 2022, Flávio called for the election results to be annulled.

Milei doesn’t have plans to comment on the results for now, according to a person familiar with the matter. Argentina’s Foreign Ministry and Embassy in Brazil haven’t released a statement on Brazil’s election either. 

A wave of recently-elected right-wing leaders aligned with Milei all congratulated Lula, including Chile’s José Antonio Kast, Peru’s Keiko Fujimori, Bolivia’s Rodrigo Paz and Colombia’s Abelardo de la Espriella. They joined leaders from Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay, Venezuela and Guyana in acknowledging the results. 

“President Lula and I have major and profound political and ideological differences, but we agree on something fundamental: Brazil and Colombia need each other,” De la Espriella posted on X.

Brazil is Argentina’s largest trading partner and the two are South America’s largest economies. Diplomatically, the bilateral relationship is at one of its worst points ever. In July, Brazil’s government recalled its ambassador to Argentina for consultations after Milei launched a fierce attack on Lula and a Supreme Court justice during the kick-off rally for Bolsonaro. 

During Argentina’s 2023 election, Lula dispatched his advisers to counsel Milei’s opponent, Sergio Massa, a reason for which Milei has since justified his criticism. However, Lula acknowledged Milei’s victory, without naming him, the night of Argentina’s vote.

Even some economists in Argentina called on Milei by Monday to recognise Lula’s win.  

“President Milei, recognise Lula’s triumph before Trump does it,” Pablo Gerchunoff, an economist at Torcuato Di Tella University in Buenos Aires, posted on X.