Milei will not congratulate Lula on re-election, spokesman says

President Javier Milei will not issue an official statement congratulating Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on his re-election, the Argentine leader's spokesman Adrián Ravier said on Tuesday, citing the ideological differences between the two leaders.

“There will be no official statement,” Ravier told reporters at a press conference, adding that the government had taken note of Sunday’s election result.

“When Javier Milei was elected president in 2023, there was no gesture from President Lula to congratulate him,” the spokesman claimed, attempting to justify the diplomatic snub.

Milei and El Salvador's Nayib Bukele are the only two Latin American governments to date not to have recognised Lula's victory publicly.

Lula’s public record contradicts the spokesperson's assertion. Although he did not mention Milei by name, the Brazilian leader did explicitly acknowledge the election result in Argentina after the 2023 election.

On November 19 that year, the Brazilian leader posted a message on X recognising Milei’s election victory, wishing his incoming administration “good luck and success” and expressing respect for Argentina.

“Democracy is the voice of the people, and it must always be respected,” Lula wrote at the time, congratulating Argentina’s institutions on conducting the election and praising voters for participating peacefully.

“Argentina is a great country and deserves all our respect," he added.

Addressing bilateral relations, Ravier rejected suggestions that Milei’s decision not to congratulate Lula would damage bilateral ties, stressing the importance of trade ties and cooperation through the Mercosur regional trade bloc.

“Argentina and Brazil are two brotherly peoples,” he said. “Diplomacy continues on the Argentine side, commercial relations continue, and we do not expect any of this to affect the work we are carrying out within Mercosur.”

He said that Milei considered relations between the two countries’ populations more important than ideological differences between their presidents.

“The only thing I can say here is that the president is not a hypocrite. There is a real ideological difference between the two leaders,” Ravier said.

Relations between Milei and Lula have been strained since the Argentine leader took office in December 2023.

The two leaders have clashed over their political views and international alliances, with Milei aligning himself closely with the United States and Israel while Lula has pursued a different foreign policy.

Milei openly backed Flávio Bolsonaro’s presidential candidacy in Brazil's election, intensifying tensions between Buenos Aires and Brasília.

Ravier on Tuesday denied that Brazilian senator Flávio Bolsonaro, son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, had requested political asylum in Argentina.