Brazilian President Lula Warns UN About Far-Right Adventurers

During his speech before the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, Brazilian President Lula da Silva warned about the presence of "far-right adventurers" who promote racism and hatred in a world with increasing inequalities.

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Xenophobia, racism and hatred are expanding through new technologies and are a new threat that must be faced by the world's democrats, he said.

"Amidst the wreckage, far-right adventurers emerge who deny politics and sell solutions that are as simple as they are wrong. Many have fallen to the temptation of replacing failed neoliberalism with primitive, authoritarian, and conservative nationalism," Lula pointed out.

Inequality is at the root of these phenomena and serves as a breeding ground for far-right positions, which expand amid the paralysis of the international community.

The text reads, "Historic! Complete speech by President Lula reinserting Brazil into the world."

"We repudiate an agenda that uses immigrants as scapegoats and corrodes the States and the rights of workers," declared the Brazilian president, who in January was the victim of an attempted coup d'état carried out by followers of former President Jair Bolsonaro.

The Brazilian president also stated that the Ukrainian war is proof of the "incapacity" of the United Nations and the international community, which bets more on weapons than on peace.

"There will be no prosperity without peace because armed conflicts are a challenge to humanity. Promoting a 'peace culture' is everyone's obligation, although not everyone assumes it," said Lula, who insisted on the need to end the Ukrainian conflict through negotiations between Russia and Ukraine.

Regarding environmental issues, the Brazilian president stated that the fight against climate change requires stronger action from rich countries, which "are the ones that pollute the most and do not fulfill" their commitments.

"Acting against climate change also means helping the poorest," Lula said and urged the United Nations to assume that developed and developing countries "have common, but differentiated, responsibilities" in the face of the climate crisis.

"The Global South is the most affected by climate change," the Brazilian leader stressed and recalled that the world's richest 10 percent is responsible for over half of polluting emissions.

"The promise of US$100 billion in aid to poorer countries to mitigate the climate crisis remains just a promise," he pointed out and denounced that the "foundations of a new economic and environmental governance have not yet been established."