Behind the Macron-Lula bromance

BRASÍLIA, Brazil ― France's Emmanuel Macron and Brazil's Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva spent three days publicly showering each other with mutual presidential affection, framed by the Amazon's golden sunsets and Brasília's white modernist palaces.

It was Macron's first visit to Lula's country, and the duo missed no opportunity to display unity on big goals like preserving the Amazon forest and making international taxation fairer.

But Macron's "marathon" trip, as Lula referred to it, also showed that France was not ready to give in to Brazil's requests such as backing the controversial EU-Mercosur trade deal or transferring more technology to build nuclear-powered submarines.

Still, it all started like a wedding photoshoot.

On their first day together, Macron and Lula traveled to the Ilha do Combu, an Amazonian island a short boat trip from the tropical metropolis of Belém.

Brazilian officials had it all planned out: The presidents would ride in a climatized cabin to stay fresh, sheltered from the humid Amazonian weather. But a few minutes in, Macron and Lula agreed they preferred to sit outside. That's where Lula's official photographer, his shadow during the whole trip, first snapped the two presidents holding hands, wearing matching outfits.

The photoshoot continued on the island, where the dynamic duo scampered, beaming, through the Amazon Rainforest, delivering a veritable visual feast for social media and the sweaty reporters who trailed after them.

During a joint press conference in Brasília on Thursday, Lula got sentimental remembering how back in 2021 Macron had hosted him at the Elysée, treating him as "someone important," even if he was not yet running for the Brazilian election.

"It marked my life and increased my respect for France," Lula told reporters, affirming that France and Brazil "represent a bridge between the Global South and the developed word."

Macron, for his part, publicly endorsed Lula's economic agenda for the G20, including the Brazilian idea of working on a global tax on the world's richest.

And Macron leaned into the romantic comparisons, posting on social media: "Some have compared the images of my visit to Brazil to those of a wedding, I tell them: it was one! France loves Brazil and Brazil loves France!"

Trouble in paradise

But all honeymoons must end.

Things got decidedly less romantic at the end of the press conference, when someone mentioned Russia's war on Ukraine. Lula's position is to not to send military or financial support to Kyiv; Macron has repeatedly and pointedly refused to rule out sending Western troops to Ukraine.

"There is so much inequality that we don't have time to think about another war," Lula said, as he criticized "investing in weapons, while we have hunger in the world."

And Russia's war isn't the only issue on which Macron and Lula see things differently.

The trip provided Macron with a new opportunity to criticize the EU trade deal with Brazil and the other South American countries of the Mercosur bloc, which Lula strongly supports but France has been blocking.

"The Mercosur agreement as negotiated today is a very bad deal,” Macron told a meeting of French and Brazilian business executives in São Paulo on Wednesday.

Submarines are another pressure point. Macron pledged to open "a new chapter" in Franco-Brazilian military cooperation, as he and Lula inaugurated a submarine built for the Brazilian navy using technology transferred by France’s Naval Group.

Brazil wants France to further share its nuclear know-how for the construction of a fifth submarine — the first to be nuclear-powered — but France is hesitant to exceed what it agreed to under a pact signed in 2008 by former French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Lula (during his first stint in the Brazilian presidency).

The Amazonian visit also provided Macron with an opportunity to cast himself as a green supporter and an ally in Lula's fight against deforestation. Belém will host the COP30 U.N. climate change conference in 2025, on the 10th anniversary of the landmark Paris Climate Agreement.

Only a year ago, Paris said it was considering contributing to the Amazon Fund, a financial initiative launched by Lula to which several other European countries have donated. But now that France is trying to restore its strained public finances with massive spending cuts, that won't be happening.

Macron instead said France and Brazil would aim to raise €1 billion in private and public investment for the bio-economy sector, but couldn't announce any direct contribution from the French government.

Still, despite their differences, Macron emerges from the trip with a set of happy snaps and a stronger relationship with one of the most powerful elected politicians outside of Europe. With Brazil chairing the G20 this year and COP next year, and many of the world's powerhouses focused on elections, Macron and Lula are positioning themselves as a power couple with an opportunity to influence the global agenda.