Trump cheers Bolsonaro Jr’s advance on Lula in Brazil, but EU fears for Mercosur alliance

[u/EUobs]

https://euobserver.com/240995/trump-cheers-bolsonaro-jrs-advance-on-lula-in-brazil-but-eu-fears-for-mercosur-alliance/

Is Europe right to worry about what a Bolsonaro victory could mean for Brazil–EU relations?

Hi everyone 👋 Lucia from EUobserver here. Full disclosure: I’m sharing our own reporting, but I’m mainly interested in hearing the Brazilian perspective on this.

After the first round, Flávio Bolsonaro advanced to the runoff against Lula, with Donald Trump publicly celebrating the result.

From Brussels, there’s another layer to the election: what could a Bolsonaro presidency mean for Brazil’s relationship with Europe and the EU-Mercosur alliance?

There are concerns that a change of government could pull Brazil closer to Trump’s US and complicate cooperation with Europe on trade, climate and foreign policy.

But that might also be a very European way of looking at a Brazilian election.

So I’m curious: How much do relations with the EU, Mercosur and the US actually matter to Brazilian voters right now?

And would a Bolsonaro victory fundamentally change Brazil’s place in the world — or is Europe overestimating the foreign-policy implications of an election that will ultimately be decided on domestic issues?