Lula and Pope Francis meet at the Vatican

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Pope Francis met this Wednesday (21) at the Vatican. In a publication on social networks, Lula thanked the pontiff for the “good talk about peace in the world”. The visit is part of Lula’s agenda in Europe this week, when he will visit Italy and France. Before the trip, the president said he would talk to the pope about solutions to the war in Ukraine and the fight against social and economic inequalities in the world. Lula also said that he would invite Francisco to participate in the Círio de Nazaré, one of the main religious festivals in the country, held annually in October, in Belém (PA). On the president’s agenda, after the meeting with the pope, there is an audience with Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, from the Vatican Secretariat of State. Thanks to Pope Francis for the audience at the Vatican and the good talk about world peace.📸: @ricardostuckert pic.twitter.com/2opMQbxXxv — Lula (@LulaOficial) June 21, 2023 Agenda in Italy Earlier, Lula met President of Italy, Sergio Mattarella, and had audiences with the former Prime Minister of Italy, Massimo D’Alema, and with the General Secretary of the Italian Democratic Party, Elly Schlein. With Matarella, the president discussed the free trade agreement between Mercosur and the European Union, on the approximation between universities and the expansion of commercial exchange between the two countries. Also today, the Brazilian president will have bilateral meetings with the Prime Minister of Italy, Giorgia Meloni, and with the mayor of Rome, Roberto Gualtieri. The meeting with Gualtieri will be personal. The politician was one of the international personalities who visited Lula during the period in which the former president was imprisoned in Curitiba (PR), from 2018 to 2019, as part of Operation Lava Jato. At the time of the visit, in July 2018, Gualtieri was a MEP for the Italian Democratic Party. As for Giorgia Meloni, until the day before the trip, the meeting with the head of government of the European country had not been confirmed, according to Brazilian authorities. The meeting was confirmed yesterday by Itamaraty. The first woman to hold the post, Meloni is the leader of the country’s first far-right government in decades. Lula arrived in Rome on Tuesday morning (20) and his first appointment in the Italian capital, just yesterday, was with sociologist Domenico de Masi, an international reference in studies on the sociology of work. Author of the book Creative Leisure, de Masi became famous for the concept according to which leisure is a factor that stimulates personal creativity. Like Roberto Gualtieri, Domenico de Mais also visited Lula in prison in Curitiba. At yesterday’s meeting, the two talked about the political scene in Brazil and Europe. Tomorrow (22), Lula leaves for Paris. In the French capital, he will participate in the Summit on the New Global Financing Pact and will have a bilateral meeting with the president of France, Emmanuel Macron. Lula will also give the closing speech at the Power Our Planet event, at the invitation of the band Coldplay, on Thursday night (22). The event will be held at Campo de Marte, in front of the Eiffel Tower, and will also be attended by leaders from East Timor, Barbados, Ghana and Kenya, as well as the mayor of Paris, Ane Hidalgo. Expanded article at 11:45 am


Agência Brasil