Loading player
French President Emmanuel Macron finished a three-day visit to Brazil on Thursday, which was much talked about for reasons not entirely related to diplomacy. This week was Macron’s first official visit to the country, and it was a way to strengthen bilateral relations and sign some important economic and military agreements: Macron and Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva spoke about military submarines, war in Ukraine and negotiations on a major trade deal underway between the European Union and Mercosur, a group of Latin American countries.
But from the first day of meetings, Tuesday, the newspapers focused on something else: that is, on the two presidents who in the middle of the Amazon forest, hand in hand and dressed practically the same, had a series of photos taken that were widely circulated for the affectionate enthusiasm shown. Almost everywhere it was said that the photos of Lula and Macron looked like those of a marriage.
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and French President Emmanuel Macron on the island of Combu, Brazil (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)
The photos were taken on Tuesday on the island of Combu, which is located not far from Belém, a large city on the edge of the Amazon rainforest. The visit had a specific meaning: Macron announced an investment program worth one billion euros to protect the forest. For this reason, the organizers of the visit had prepared a very detailed program which envisaged that the two presidents would arrive on the island aboard a boat with a closed cabin and air conditioning, to shelter from the hot and very humid climate of the region: a Belém these days temperatures are between 25 and 32 degrees, with humidity above 90 percent.
But how he said Politico, Lula and Macron decided almost immediately that they would take the trip by boat outdoors. At that point, Lula’s official photographer took the first photo of the series, in which the two, holding hands fraternally, look at the horizon from the bow of the boat.
On the way to Ilha do Combu, in Pará, with @EmmanuelMacron. Beginning of a three-day trip by the French president to Brazil, deepening the partnership between our countries. 🇧🇷🇫🇷
📸 @ricardostuckert pic.twitter.com/irPstXjOrk
— Lula (@LulaOficial) March 26, 2024
Once they arrived on the island of Combu, Lula and Macron continued to be photographed with enthusiastic attitudes in various areas of the island’s forest: the lush setting, the fact that the two were dressed practically the same, and above all the euphoria of the two presidents had their photographs widely circulated.
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and French President Emmanuel Macron on the island of Combu, Brazil (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres).
In general, the entire visit to the island took place in a very jovial and affectionate atmosphere: at a certain point, for example, Lula started taking photographs with a large reflex camera.
Dear Raoni, for your work, your tireless fight, for you, your people, for all of Amazonia and its indigenous peoples: mejkumrej, thank you. pic.twitter.com/E2D5VUfQSg
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) March 27, 2024
Macron himself, in the end, decided to use the issue to his advantage, and published on my visit to Brazil to those of a wedding, I say: it was! France loves Brazil and Brazil loves France!
Some have compared the images of my visit to Brazil to those of a wedding, I tell them: it was one! France loves Brazil and Brazil loves France!
Thanks dear @LulaOficialdear @JanjaLulathank you to all the Brazilians I was able to meet, for your welcome.… pic.twitter.com/cXfeEuYXBQ
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) March 28, 2024
Politically and economically, Macron has strong interests in deepening relations between France and Brazil, one of the world‘s largest countries and an emerging economy. Macron has been cultivating his relationship with Lula since before the Brazilian president won the last elections, in 2022 (he had already been in office between 2003 and 2011). During the visit, Lula himself recalled how in 2021 Macron welcomed him to France, in the Elysée presidential palace, and how this gesture “marked my life and increased my respect for France”. At that time the Brazilian president was Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right politician with whom Macron had entered into controversy on more than one occasion.
There were also moments of dissent during Macron’s three-day visit to Brazil. The most important concerned the war in Ukraine: Lula is against military support for the Ukrainian resistance, and on more than one occasion he has actually expressed covertly pro-Russian positions. Macron, on the other hand, especially in the last few months, has become one of the most convinced supporters of Ukrainian resistance to the Russian invasion.
The two presidents also inaugurated a military submarine built by Brazil using French technologies, and spoke about the trade agreement between the European Union and Mercosur (a group that includes Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay), which would allow the elimination of duties on a substantial part of the trade between the two blocks. Brazil is in favor of the agreement, while many European countries fear the arrival of low-cost competition from Latin American countries and are more sceptical: «The agreement with Mercosur as it has been negotiated at the moment is a bad agreement», he said. said Macron in Brazil.