Dicionario Lula ("Lula Dictionary"): It's the catchy title, as playful as it is useful, of a book by Brazilian journalist Ali Kamel (2009). Through some 300 entries, it revisits speeches made by the left-wing leader during most of his first two terms in office, between 2003 and 2011. The words "strike," "mother," "democracy," "food," "love," "bribe," "sex," "computer," "communism," "Obama" and "misery" appear in no particular order. On first reading, nothing seems to be missing.

But for some time now, a new term has emerged in Lulist vocabulary: "Global South." The Brazilian president, who will host his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, on a visit to Brazil from March 26 to 28, now makes diligent and emphatic use of the concept, previously absent from his glossary. That was the case on February 17, during a speech delivered at the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. "The Global South is becoming an essential part of the solution to the major crises afflicting the planet," he said.

This was not the first time. In November 2023, Lula spoke at the virtual summit of the Voices of the Global South, a forum sponsored by Narendra Modi's India. "There are far more interests that unite us than differences that separate us. Assuming our identity as a Global South means recognizing that we see the world from a similar perspective," he argued, calling for mobilization for a "fairer international order."

Aggressive tone

Lula is a pillar of the BRICS+ group (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, joined by five new countries this year) and of the Group of 77, a coalition that in fact contains the 134 countries meant to embody the interests of the Global South. He even seems intent on following in the footsteps of India's Nehru, Indonesia's Sukarno, Egypt's Nasser and China's Zhou Enlai, figureheads of the 1955 Bandung conference. "We will not accept a new Cold War," he said in early 2023, referring to the opposition between the West and the China-Russia axis with a nod to the non-aligned countries of yesteryear.

Lula has therefore decided to endorse the Global South, for which he aims to become a spokesperson if not its leader. Although he has stated his intention not to "antagonize the North," he has recently multiplied his hostile declarations towards the West and its allies. He has judged Volodymyr Zelensky "as responsible as [Vladimir] Putin" for the war in Ukraine; compared the conflict in Gaza to the Holocaust; defended the Venezuelan regime in the face of sanctions; and harshly attacked the European Union over negotiations on a free-trade agreement with Mercosur, and in particular France, whose agriculture is deemed "protectionist" with consideration only for its "little chickens."

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