The left is celebrating.

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is back in power and is President of Brazil for the third time.

The rush in Brasilia to take office on New Year's Day was great.

More than fifty foreign delegations arrived to congratulate him.

Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier was also among the heads of state present.

He obviously felt comfortable in Brasilia, met up with his old friend for a private chat, was happy about "Brazil's return to the world stage" and appeared in a brotherly embrace with Lula.

Tjerk Bruhwiller

Correspondent for Latin America based in São Paulo.

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That's how it's done in Brazil.

And somehow the joy about the change of government is understandable, also because the new government is much more in line with Germany when it comes to the important issue of climate protection.

The Development Ministry is even providing 35 million euros for the protection of the rainforest.

Hardly any German wanted to travel to Bolsonaro

There is a lot of catching up to do in relation to Latin America's largest economy.

Hardly any German politician has set foot in the country in the past four years.

A rapprochement with Lula da Silva's predecessor Jair Bolsonaro could have become an image problem.

Bolsonaro led Brazil into isolation, not only on the climate issue, which has become so important to Europeans.

Last year he also caused a shake of the head when he visited Russian President Vladimir Putin just days before the invasion of Ukraine.

Unlike French President Emmanuel Macron and Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who Putin kept at a distance, the Brazilian was allowed to sit at the small table.

Bolsonaro offered a lot of criticism.

It is questionable, however, whether one should approach Lula da Silva as uncritically and enthusiastically as Steinmeier did in Brasilia.

Because there are other important issues besides climate change.

To stay with the Ukraine example, Europe should not hope to find an ally in the new Brazilian government to support Ukraine in this war.

Brazilian foreign policy has always been neutral.

Under Lula, she could become even more “neutral” than Europe would like.

In an interview with the British newspaper "Times" in May, he made it clear what he thinks of the war: "This guy is just as to blame for the war as Putin," said Lula da Silva about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

If he didn't want war, he would try to negotiate.

That sounded a bit like Steinmeier's words about NATO's "saber rattling and war howling" to Russia, which he had heard as foreign minister.

Latin America's left is critical of the US

Lula da Silva will not speak out against Putin.

This attitude reflects to some extent the anti-Americanism that is firmly entrenched in the Latin American left, including in large sections of Lula da Silva's Labor Party.

She was one of the first to wish well after Nicaraguan dictator Daniel Ortega arrested around thirty opposition leaders last year and then had himself re-elected.

Lula da Silva also counts the Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro among his friends.

Maduro was even invited to the inauguration, but did not appear.

Lula da Silva would have hugged him just as warmly as Steinmeier.

As Lula's boyfriend, he apparently didn't address these other difficult friendships.

After all, friends are there to discuss sensitive issues.

One of these issues is corruption.

She was not mentioned at all at the inauguration in Brasilia on New Year's Day.

Maybe out of decency towards the host.

His successes during his reign from 2003 to 2011 cannot be denied.

Neither is the huge corruption scandal that determined the reign.

There is no clear evidence against Lula da Silva.

The trial that landed him in prison was messy and was later overturned.

But the scandal was not fiction.

It happened under Lula da Silva's eyes.

On the left, especially in Europe, Lula has retained his positive image.

He remains the victim who has now received justice through re-election.

In Brazil in particular, things are viewed more critically.

It is no coincidence that almost half of the voters chose Bolsonaro.

They shouldn't be forgotten, nor the Ukrainians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans, before falling into blind excitement at Lula's return.