The president of Argentina, Javier Milei, adopted a pragmatic stance when talking about the relationship with his Brazilian counterpart, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), during an interview with Bloomberg at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
“We have a mature relationship. This is not an ideological battle or a dispute over academic articles. The lives of millions of people are at stake”, he told journalist John Micklethwait after being asked about the distance he maintains from the PT member.
Despite the statement contained about the Brazilian left-wing leader, when provoked by the interviewer, Milei joked that he would not give the name “Lula” to his dogs, as it was an “insult”.
“Are you going to name one of your dogs Lula?” asked Bloomberg. Milei promptly responds that she would never name her dogs after someone on the left. “I love them too much to insult them,” he declared.
The Argentine named the animals after two liberal economists he admires: Milton Friedman and Murray Rothbard.
Lula and Milei are not seen as ideological allies on the international stage and, on many occasions, the PT member has been the target of criticism from the leader of the Casa Rosada, who has presented himself as a representative of US President Donald Trump in the region.
A recent episode that confirmed this distance between the two occurred on the 11th, when the Argentine stated that he does not see any reason to talk to Lula about the crisis in Venezuela, an issue on which they are on opposing sides.
On that occasion, Milei also publicly expressed his preference for the victory of senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ) in Brazil’s presidential election, which takes place in October.
