President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva arrived on Wednesday (4) to France, where he will start from Thursday (5) the first state visit of a Brazilian agent since 2012 with the objective of “strengthening the relationship” between both countries and addressing international crises, such as conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza. On social networks, the petista announced that he went to Paris at the invitation of his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron.
Lula, who traveled with his wife, Janja, was received at the landing track by France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot. The official visit will start on Thursday with a ceremony at the Invalid Palace, before a work lunch and a state banquet at night at the Elisha Palace, headquarters of the French Presidency.
France and Brazil launched a strategic partnership in 2006, with conservative Jacques Chirac and Lula in Power, who cooled in 2016 and, above all, during the term of former President Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2023). The return of the petista to power revated the relationship and, in March 2024, Macron traveled to Brazil, where he visited the Amazon and the shipyard where he builds French submarines Scorpène.
Now, the visit of the Brazilian president was also presented as part of this bilateral rapprochement. In X, Lula said the two leaders will discuss “cooperation agreements in the areas of environment, technology, defense, energy and health”. Lula should also participate in the France-Brazil Economic Forum and the UN Ocean Conference, which starts Monday in Nice, among other events.
Is expected, as anticipated in May by Globothat the French Academy – an institution equivalent to the Brazilian Academy of Letters – perform an official private session to honor Lula. This is a rare event: since the founding of the academy in 1635, only 19 heads of state have been honored in an official session-that is, an average of four per century, according to sources that participated in the elaboration of the program.
Lula should be the second Brazilian to receive the rare tribute. The first was Dom Pedro II in 1872. The idea of inviting Lula to the tribute was the perpetual secretary of the academy, writer Amin Maalouf. Created by Richelieu and inspiration for the Brazilian Academy founded by Machado de Assis, the French Academy today has as patron President Emmanuel Macron and has 40 chairs.
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Pressure of Farmers
Also on Wednesday, farmers and deputies asked Macron to maintain pressure against the trade agreement between the European Union (EU) and Mercosur. France leads the group of reticent European countries to sign the agreement, but the pressure grows within the bloc to approve it as a measure to relieve the impact of the trade war triggered by Donald Trump’s tariffs.
“There is still time and now we should say no.” President Lula’s visit should not change the course-said Jean-François Guihard, president of the French Association of Beef Producers and Ovina Interbev.
For the leader of this symbolic sector in France, Macron must, on the contrary, take advantage of the occasion to express his “firmness” before Lula and “reaffirm his commitment to international trade based on just and sustainable norms”.
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If Ratified, the EU, Mercosur’s main commercial partner, could easily export cars and pharmaceutical products, while the South American block could sell more meat, sugar, soy, honey, among others, to Europe.
France, however, faces the firm opposition of its agricultural sector and requires Mercosur exports to comply with the same production norms as those of the EU.
