Brazil leader who's all things to all men

news.ft.com By Raymond Colitt Published: January 23 2003 19:02 | Last Updated: January 23 2003 19:02

When Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva arrives in southern Brazil's balmy Porto Alegre on Friday to address the World Social Forum he will have two speeches - and a set of winter clothes - but a single policy agenda in his bags.

Following what promises to be a heated anti-globalisation gathering, Mr Lula da Silva will be off to the the Swiss Alps to address the global economic policymakers who are the focus of rage at the "anti- Davos" in Brazil.

The unprecedented move is indicative of how Mr Lula da Silva has been straddling two opposite worlds of economic and political thought since elected president of Latin America's largest country three months ago.

At home he is seeking to balance demands for radical social change with economic austerity - for example, by pursuing fiscal discipline but trying to improve the efficiency of social spending.

Mr Lula da Silva's government has so far defied the traditional labels of Latin America regimes. "It is a type of neo-socialism anchored in economic orthodoxy," says Carlos Langoni, head of the Rio de Janeiro-based centre of global economy at the FGV, a think-tank and business school.

Mr Lula da Silva's first foreign policy initiatives have mirrored this dichotomy, pursuing a more assertive defence of trade interests and regional leadership but seeking to maintain good relations with Washington and multilateral agencies.

He has been sympathetic to Hugo Chávez, Venezuela's embattled president, and has sent fuel to ease the effect of the ongoing oil strike designed to force Mr Chávez out of office. Yet he denied Mr Chávez's request to exclude the US or include more pro-Chávez countries in the "group of friends" that hopes to promote negotiations for a peaceful solution to Venezuela's crisis.

Mr Lula da Silva talks tough on trade, is friendly with Fidel Castro and eager to rebuild Mercosur, the South American trade bloc, but is ready to negotiate on free trade with US, Europe and within the World Trade Organisation.

Those gathered in Porto Alegre and Davos have big expectations of Mr Lula da Silva. To many in southern Brazil's port city, the former union leader embodies their struggle for a more just world economic order. In Davos, international investors encouraged by early signs of economic orthodoxy remain cautious and will want to see more action to follow good intentions.

Mr Lula da Silva will have treats for both audiences. Pledges of property titles for shanty dwellers and food for the poor will be music to the ears of peasant and homeless movements, including France's José Bové and the MST, the Brazilian landless movement that is one of Mr Lula da Silva's more radical sources of support.

In Davos, Mr Lula da Silva and his economic team will be talking up their plans, which include far-reaching reforms to make Brazil more efficient and business more competitive. Antonio Palocci, finance minister, will be taking the message to bankers, investors, and Anne Krueger of the International Monetary Fund.

But Mr Lula da Silva's two-pronged approach will certainly disappoint hardliners on either side of the Atlantic. "We would prefer he didn't go to Davos," says Atila Roque, one of the organisers of the event. "Lula is more important than Davos, he's a leader who embodies many of the core values of the forum."

Colleagues in his leftwing Workers' party (PT) reverted to class struggle rhetoric to defend the president's rapprochement with the bourgeoisie. "Lenin said that the proletariat should not refuse any audience to expose its ideas," said Marta Suplicy, São Paulo's PT mayor.

In Davos Mr Lula da Silva will talk not only business but also inequality. Pharmaceutical companies can expect his government to relaunch Brazil's fight for more flexible drug patent laws to benefit the world's developing countries.

Mr Lula da Silva will also expound his ideas on a new social contract between capital and labour. "Lula is the spokesperson of inequality," said Luiz Furlan, trade minister and the principal proponent of the president's visit to Davos. "His legitimacy comes from his [impoverished] origin and not the office he holds."

Mr Lula da Silva "will defend his own particular, pragmatic line of government," says Antônio Corrêa de Lacerda, who heads the society for the study of multinational companies. "His presence in both forums signals the willingness for dialogue. This is one of the president's strong points."

His government opens "a promising political alternative in a subcontinent frustrated that democracy and a decade of economic liberalisation have not brought more prosperity and social justice," Javier Solana, the European Union's foreign policy chief, argued recently. "If Lula succeeds . . . he will forge a new model for the