Lula Calls Off Monday's Public Event in Madrid Over Voice Loss; Moncloa Meeting With Sánchez Goes Ahead
Spain's Socialist Party confirmed on November 14 that the public conversation between Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, planned for Monday, November 16 in Madrid, has been cancelled because Lula has lost his voice. The two leaders were to appear together in a dialogue at the headquarters of the UGT union federation, in a show of support for Sánchez's re-election campaign. Party sources say Lula can speak but cannot sustain long public interventions; during the COP31 climate summit in Antalya, Türkiye, he had already cut back his speaking because of persistent voice problems.
Only the campaign event is off. The prime minister's office in Madrid confirmed that Lula's institutional visit goes ahead: he arrives in Madrid on November 15 and will hold a bilateral meeting with Sánchez at the Moncloa Palace on November 16, covering bilateral relations and coordination of global initiatives such as Democracy Always and the Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty. Lula is stopping in Spain on his way back from a state visit to the Philippines.
It is Lula's first visit to Spain since he won re-election on October 25, defeating Flávio Bolsonaro in Brazil's presidential runoff. The Socialists had counted the public endorsement as a major international boost for their campaign against the rise of the far right.
(Source: Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE))
Source: Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：巴西总统卢拉官方肖像。Ricardo Stuckert／巴西总统府摄，CC BY 2.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: Official portrait of Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. By Ricardo Stuckert / Presidency of Brazil, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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