No president has the right to impose rules on other countries, says Lula

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva participated, this Saturday (18), in the 4th High-Level Meeting of the Forum in Defense of Democracy, in Barcelona, ​​Spain. In his speech, he emphasized the need to reform the UN, defend democracy and combat imperialism and the extreme right. He also spoke about the urgency of regulating social networks, fighting machismo and femicide and putting an end to the 6×1 scale.

“What moves us, with great strength, is the issue of multilateralism and the relationship between nations. Because this topic that we are discussing here could be discussed at the United Nations. And why isn’t it? Because today the United Nations does not represent what it was created for”, said Lula.

He highlighted that the five permanent members of the UN Security Council — whose objective was to guarantee peace in the world after the Second World War — “have become warlords”.

In this scenario, the president continued, “the democracy we discuss here, among heads of state, is whether the world will continue the way it is or whether we will try to change it.” Furthermore, he emphasized: “No president of any country in the world, no matter how big it is, has the right to impose rules on other countries.”

Also read: Lula criticizes “powerful people who think they are deities” and attacks peace defenders

Without directly citing President Donald Trump, Lula highlighted that “we cannot wake up and go to sleep with a tweet from a President of the Republic threatening the world and waging war”.

The Brazilian president stated that “extremism and the lack of respect for UN charters, the lack of respect for harmony between countries and nations, is something very dangerous in the world we are living in”.

Subsequently, Lula defended the participation of other countries in UN forums and councils. “Where is the African representation? On the African continent alone we have three countries with more than 120 million inhabitants. Where is the participation of Mexico and Brazil, Argentina, Colombia? Where is the participation of India? So many important countries, Germany, Japan, Indonesia, all countries could participate.”

The UN, Lula added, “cannot remain silent in the face of what is happening in the world”, stressing that today “Trump invades Iran and increases beans in Brazil, increases corn in Mexico, increases gasoline in other countries. In other words, it is the poor who pay for the irresponsibility of wars that no one wants.”

The president also said he was “very concerned about Cuba” and defended the end of sanctions and the right of the Cuban people to their sovereignty. “Cuba’s problems belong to the Cubans. It is not a problem for Lula, Cláudia (Sheinbaum, president of Mexico) or Trump.” And he emphasized: “Stop this damn blockade of Cuba and let the Cubans live their lives.”

Digital platforms and far right

Lula also addressed the need for greater regulation in the functioning of big techs — which would need to come from the UN to have global reach — and criticized the interference of heads of state in elections in other countries through social media, a risk that Brazil is taking this year.

“(It is necessary) to control digital platforms, impose democratic rules”, he declared, adding that “the UN is a very valuable instrument, if it works. And it needs to work to ensure that, for example, platforms are regulated throughout the world, for everyone. A President of the Republic of one country cannot interfere in the election of another, ask for a vote for another. Where is the electoral sovereignty? Where is the territorial sovereignty?”.

When dealing with the Brazilian extreme right, he said that “we have just defeated extremism” because “we have a former president arrested, sentenced to 27 years in prison, and four four-star generals arrested because they tried a coup”. But, he stressed, “extremism is not over. It is still alive and will contest the election again.” And he added: “but this is our problem, that of the Brazilian people, which we deal with with our forces and with our weapons inside”.

Lula also stated: “What bothers me is the return of emperors who think they own the world. We don’t want any more tsars, we don’t want any more emperors. Poor people deserve a chance to live in a democratic system. We need to bring together everyone in the world who wants to build democracy. Democracy within each country depends on each country. But democracy in the United Nations depends on us; strengthening multilateralism depends on us.”

6×1 scale and femicides

In his speech, President Lula also addressed other issues that have been debated in Brazil, including the end of the 6×1 scale — the proposal, which has been worked on in recent years by parliamentarians and trade union and social movements, was formatted into a new Executive bill, which will be processed urgently in Congress.

When defending a new scale of work, he said: “Today it seems to me that technological gains, the sophistication of production, are only valid for the rich. For the poor they are worth nothing. In other words, don’t they win because the company’s productivity has increased?”

For Lula, agendas like this help rebuild the credibility of democracy. “Democracy is losing credibility because it has often failed to respond to society’s desires,” he added.

The president also spoke about the fight against gender-based violence, highlighting that “the world continues to be very sexist and in the case of my country, sexism is increasingly violent”.

Lula informed the other heads of state of the creation of the Brazilian National Pact against Feminicide, involving the Executive, Legislative and Judiciary branches. “We are trying to hold men accountable because they are the ones who are violent. We want to create the idea that the problem of violence against women is not a woman’s problem, but a man’s problem.”