Sebastian Fest

Updated Friday, March 29, 2024-16:50

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Rarely do photos of a meeting between two high-ranking politicians generate what those of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Emmanuel Macron did: the three-day visit of the French president to Brazil gave rise to

memes

in which they were

recast

as protagonists from films like

La La Land

or

Call me by your name

, but also to sincere expressions of admiration for the meeting that took place in the heart of the Amazon.

So many smiles, hugs, handshakes and

selfies

in the middle of the jungle or rushing rivers caught the attention of those who followed the visit that Macron began in Belem, headquarters of the Cop-30 in 2025.

Macron and Lula announced a €1 billion plan for the Amazon, including parts of the French Guiana rainforest. The next day they launched a submarine built with French technology at a shipyard outside Rio de Janeiro.

"Some people compared the images of my visit to Brazil with those of a wedding, and I tell them: It was a wedding!" Macron wrote on his social networks along with an edited photograph in which he appears with Lula on the poster of the film

La La Land

, taking the place of

Ryan Gosling

and

Emma Stone

. "France loves Brazil and Brazil loves France!"

The Brazilian president, for his part, reacted to his counterpart's message, which included a version in Portuguese, with three

emojis

: the flags of both countries and one of swirling hearts.

The situation in

Venezuela

was also a meeting point for the leaders, who urged the

Nicolás Maduro

regime to guarantee truly free and democratic elections in July.

The development and impact of Macron's visit implies a success for Lula, who has repeatedly complained that the leaders of the central countries, when they make demands from an ecological vision, do not understand what the Amazon is. Thus, it was proposed that the meeting with Macron be in the heart of the Amazon, so that the French president would understand that many people live there and that the dynamics of the

"lungs of the planet"

are broader than what is seen from Europe.

The defense of the native forest and decisive steps to moderate climate change were part of the agreements during a visit that included Macron's visit to Sao Paulo, where he met with the powerful Federation of Industrialists (Fiesp).

There, Macron showed a key disagreement on a very sensitive issue for Lula, the strategic association agreement between Mercosur and the European Union (EU), which has been in negotiation for 22 years. Now, with the agreement about to be closed, Macron proposes "renegotiating it from scratch."

"The agreement with Mercosur is a terrible agreement as it is being negotiated now. This agreement was negotiated 20 years ago. I do not defend this agreement. It is not what we want," he said at the Brazil-France Economic Forum.



"Let's put aside a 20-year-old agreement and

build a new

, more responsible agreement that takes into account issues such as climate and reciprocity," argued Macron, in a position contrary to what Lula proposes.

At the same event, the vice president of Brazil,

Geraldo Alckmin

, noted that "Mercosur was expanded with one more country this year, which is Bolivia. We made an agreement with Singapore and there have been conversations with the European Union. President Lula always says "There has to be reciprocity. It's a win-win situation. We conquer markets, we open markets."



Fernando Haddad

, in a demonstration that not everything is

La La Land

, pointed out that Lula will continue to press for the agreement to remain as it is. "We must not give up on this agreement," he emphasized.