“Victory for Lula, victory for the people!” rejoiced Jean-Luc Mélenchon on Twitter at the announcement of Lula’s victory in the second round of the Brazilian presidential election, Sunday, October 30. According to the leader of La France insoumise, the success of the left-wing candidate signals the end of the proposed free trade agreement between Mercosur and the European Union. “Tonight, the free trade agreement with Mercosur is dead. Lula doesn’t want it. And neither do we. Victory”, he shouted. Is it correct ? Franceinfo checked.
Tonight the free trade agreement with the #Mercosur is dead. #Lula don’t want it. And neither do we. Victoire.
— Jean-Luc Melenchon (@JLMelenchon) October 30, 2022
During an interview with the Canal Rural channel (in Portuguese), at the end of September, the candidate of the Brazilian Workers’ Party, on the contrary, promised to reopen negotiations between the Common Market of the South (Mercosur) and the European Union and to conclude an agreement within six months of his election. A month earlier, he had even received a German delegation to discuss this commercial partnership, as relayed on Twitter by his campaign account (in Portuguese).
Lula’s election was even hailed by several European leaders as a positive signal for the progress of this draft agreement. Swedish Trade Minister Johan Forssell said on Monday that the result of the Brazilian election opened “new possibilities” in this regard. “I am more optimistic than before about the possibility of reaching an agreement”, declared the minister, whose country will assume the rotating presidency of the EU from January 2023. A little earlier, the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, had also congratulated Lula, showing his desire to “move forward” the EU-Brazil relationship.
In reality, this agreement is now blocked by the European Union. A text was indeed drafted and finalized in 2019, but it was never ratified, in particular due to the opposition of France. Against the backdrop of megafires caused by deforestation in the Amazon, Emmanuel Macron refused to sign the agreement to implement the commercial partnership, accusing Jair Bolsonaro of having “lied” on its environmental commitments.
Brazil could reopen negotiations with the European Union and reach an agreement, if it provides the necessary guarantees to show that Brazil will respect its environmental commitments. However, during his interview with the Canal Rural channel, Lula said he wanted to renegotiate certain aspects of the agreement. He fears that, in its current state, the text will be harmful to the process of reindustrialization of Brazil that he wishes to initiate. The elected president does not want “renounce our interest in reindustrialising ourselves”reports the Brazilian newspaper O Globo.
However, Lula remains determined to conclude an agreement quickly. “It does not mean renegotiating the whole pact or starting from scratch”Celso Luiz Nunes Amorim, former foreign minister of Lula, told Reuters (link in English). Brasilia’s objective is to obtain “a balanced agreement, which takes into account global warming and the need for sustainable development while allowing industrial development with cutting-edge technology”.