When Stefan Löfven met Brazilian President Lula da Silva for the first time, it was as chairman of IF Metall.
- It was 2007 and he was invited by the Reinfeldt government.
Lula spent about an hour at the federal office where he met old friends who supported him when he was union president.
Similar background
Löfven and Lula share a background in many ways: Löfven has worked as a welder, Lula as a turner.
Both have been presidents of metal workers.
- I have met him on three or four occasions.
It is clear, we have established that we have the same background and are proud of it.
Lula is a very warm person.
He is very ideological, but also pragmatic.
Stormed the Congress
On January 1, left-wing politician Lula da Silva took office for the third time as president of Brazil, less than five years after he was convicted in a corruption scandal.
A judgment that was later overturned.
A week after Lula was installed as president, thousands of supporters of ex-president Jair Bolsonaro stormed Congress, the presidential palace and the Supreme Court.
Promised to unite the country
Lula da Silva faces a big challenge when he tries to unite the polarized country.
In addition, he will have a congress with Bolsonaro's conservative supporters in the majority against him.
- I think it will be very tough because there are such strong right-wing extremist forces left.
But Lula is also clear that he wants to seek more towards the middle to mark that it is now a collection that applies.
And to try to find broad solutions and not play on contradictions as his opponents then want to do.
See the Foreign Office: Who can Lula trust? in SVT Play from 20.00 or at 22.00 on SVT2.
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Photo: TT/AP