Argentine President Javier Milei traveled to Brazil, his country’s main trading partner, to support opposition leader Flávio Bolsonaro ahead of the presidential elections in October. At the national convention of the Liberal Party, which this Saturday formalized the candidacy of former president Jair Bolsonaro’s son, Milei attacked the current Brazilian president, Lula da Silva: he included him among “the damn leftists” and “socialist trash,” whom he called to defeat in Brazil and throughout Latin America. With his performance in São Paulo, where he sang, jumped, and rallied on stage, Milei began a series of international trips with which he seeks to consolidate and strengthen the far-right in the region and his own figure as a leader of the movement.
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Milei arrived in Brazil’s most populous city on Friday night, accompanied by his sister and Secretary General of the Presidency, Karina Milei, and Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno. Although the core of his visit was to participate in the Liberal Party (PL) convention, he also intended to visit Jair Bolsonaro at the residence where he is under house arrest, convicted of an attempted coup in 2022. But local justice denied him authorization.
On Saturday morning, Milei was honored by the São Paulo far-right. At the Palácio dos Bandeirantes, seat of the district government, he was received with honors by Governor Tarcísio de Freitas, a retired military officer who served as minister during Jair Bolsonaro’s presidency. As the military police trumpets sounded, Milei and De Freitas exchanged hugs, smiles, and handshakes. The greeting and photos showed them on a blue carpet, replacing the traditional red carpet. While some sources suggested it was a tribute to the Argentine flag, others spoke of a detail to allude to the advance of right-wing political forces in the region, identified with the color blue.
Milei was honored with the Order of Ipiranga in the Grand Cross degree, the highest decoration awarded by the local State. Later, he held a meeting at the official governor’s residence with De Freitas and the local mayor, Ricardo Nunes. There he had his first meeting of the day with Senator Flávio Bolsonaro. Upon entering the main office, Milei embraced him effusively. “It’s good to see you, my friend. This hug is from my father. Thank you for everything,” the senator greeted him. “It’s a shame I couldn’t see your dad,” the Argentine replied. “We came to accompany the blue wave,” Milei told him. “I hope we finish painting the map as it should be once and for all,” he added.
Today I was alongside the president of Argentina, @JMilei, the governor of São Paulo, @tarcisiogdf, and the mayor of São Paulo, @ricardo_nunessp. Four leaders, one commitment: less bureaucracy, more freedom, and respect for the people’s money. pic.twitter.com/frtylmq4Pv
— Flávio Bolsonaro (@FlavioBolsonaro) July 25, 2026
Later, both would share the stage set up in a pavilion of the Pacaembu football stadium for the PL convention. Before hundreds of ultra-militants, Milei was one of the last speakers. He entered the scene as he usually does in his country, singing: “Hello everyone, I am the lion,” a phrase from the song Panic show, by the group La Renga. “In Argentina, we have seen how the damn leftists plunged us into poverty,” he said, reading a speech that began by criticizing the Kirchnerist governments that preceded him.
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“The path to socialism is always the path to totalitarianism,” the Argentine asserted. “Brazil has not yet experienced the most dire consequences of this model, but it could if it cannot turn the tide. We trust you, Flávio, to stop the socialist trash!” he roared. Immediately, he lashed out at Lula, with whom he has had a tense relationship since becoming president. He accused him of “disseminating communism” along with the late Fidel Castro and defined him as “a neighbor who meddled in Argentine politics to try to twist history in favor of the damn leftists,” an allusion to Da Silva’s support for Peronism in the 2023 elections, which led Milei to the Casa Rosada.
“Today, socialism is being eradicated in Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, and we hope it will be in Brazil in October,” Milei enthused. “Other nations are waking up, but this ideology clings to Brazil,” thanks to “one of its longest-standing promoters,” he again charged against Lula. “Don’t let your future be stolen by thieving socialists,” he rallied the PL militants. “Their strategy is the same everywhere: destroy public accounts to win elections,” he said, and called to “sharpen the scissors to cut off the theft of all socialist criminals.” Beside him, Flávio Bolsonaro opened and closed a prop pair of scissors. “Waste is paid for, and we hope that whoever caused it pays by losing at the polls in October,” the Argentine president insisted. Shortly after, he closed his speech with his shouts of “long live freedom, damn it.”
Although the latest polls do not encourage him, Milei hopes that the presidential elections in Brazil will continue to strengthen the bloc of Latin American governments identified with conservative, right-wing, and far-right forces. As part of this heterogeneous group, the Argentine president considers the administrations of José Antonio Kast in Chile; Rodrigo Paz in Bolivia; Daniel Noboa in Ecuador; Santiago Peña in Paraguay; Nayib Bukele in El Salvador; Nasry Asfura in Honduras; José Raúl Mulino in Panama; Luis Abinader in the Dominican Republic; and Laura Fernández in Costa Rica.
After his visit to Brazil, the ultra-president plans to travel to two countries whose governments will join that list. This Tuesday he will travel to Peru to appear at the inauguration of Keiko Fujimori as the new president, and a few days later, on August 7, he will go to Colombia to attend the swearing-in of Abelardo de la Espriella. Later, Milei plans to visit Ecuador and hold a bilateral meeting with Noboa. Regarding this regional bloc, Milei intends to establish himself as a central leader or reference, leveraged by his unconditional alliance with the Government of Donald Trump in the United States.
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