In speaking at the 2nd edition of the event in defense of democracy and against extremism, accompanied by leaders from about 30 countries in New York, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva warned on Wednesday (24) that democracy is what is at stake for the future of humanity.
“Only democracy will be able to rebuild multilateralism and reconstruct harmony between human beings and civility between the relationship of states,” he said.
In addition to Brazil, the initiative of Chile, Gabriel Boric, and Spain, Pedro Sánchez.
The initiative aims to advance active diplomacy, which promotes international cooperation against the deterioration of institutions, misinformation, hatred discourse and social inequality. In a nod to the world left and, above all, on the Latin American left, Lula questioned the growth of the far right.
“Let’s get our hands on our conscience, all of us who are here. What did we do yesterday for democracy? How many people do we talk about democracy? How many people do we talk about popular organization? The truth is that we don’t talk. If we don’t talk, we don’t organize. And if we don’t organize, democracy has lost,” Lula said.
“What matters to me today is to answer, to ourselves, where did the Democrats go wrong. What is the moment the left wrong? Why do we allow the far right to grow with the strength that is growing? It’s virtue of them or is our incompetence?
In his speech, the president also questioned the motivations behind political decisions.
“Many times, we get elections with leftist speeches. And when we start to rule, it meets much more to the interests of our enemies than our friends,” he said.
The president caught the attention of those present by stating that “often, we governs what the press publishes about us. The market collection, the need to content the market, the opponents. And often our voters, who went to the street, who have been caught, are considered by us sectarian and radical.
“Before we seek the virtue of right -wing extremism, we have to look for the mistakes that democracy made in the relationship with civil society,” he charged.
“How are we exercising democracy in our countries? If we find this answer, we win the right again. If we do not find the answer, we will continue to be suffocated by negationism, extremism and the fascist discourse we are seeing now,” he concluded.
