Socialist President of Brazil Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is expected to meet with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) on Monday before delivering his speech at the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, Brazilian outlets reported.
President Lula arrived in New York on Sunday night to participate in this week’s 81st session of the U.N. General Assembly. According to Brazilian outlets, Lula is leading a 73-person delegation that includes First Lady Rosângela “Janja” Lula da Silva, four ministers, and dozens of government officials. The Brazilian president is expected to be the first head of state to speak at the General Assembly’s high-level debate, following a decades-old tradition that began after Brazil’s delegation opened the first-ever high-level debate after World War II. President Donald Trump is expected to deliver his speech after Lula.
According to CNN Brasil, Mamdani will meet with Lula on Monday morning — just about 24 hours before Lula delivers his General Assembly speech. Per CNN Brasil and the left-wing Brazilian newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo, Mamdani requested the meeting, which is expected to take place at the official residence of the Brazilian ambassador to the U.N. in New York, where Lula will be staying.
Lula is also expected to hold several other meetings at the official residence, including a “confirmed” encounter with Sen. Sanders on Monday evening. According to Folha, the Vermont senator has a “history of supporting democracy [sic] and progressivism in Brazil,” and strongly opposed both the impeachment of former President Dilma Rousseff in 2016 and Lula’s corruption conviction and imprisonment in 2019. Sen. Sanders has, in contrast, not been vocal following the widespread repression of conservative voices by the Brazilian government following Lula’s victory, including the imprisonment of former President Jair Bolsonaro.
According to CNN Brasil, groups among the ruling far-left Workers’ Party (PT) in Brazil have described Mamdani in the past as a politician with the “potential” to renovate leftism at a global level. An unnamed Brazilian government official reportedly noted to CNN Brasil that a rapprochement between Lula and Mamdani could cause “friction” with President Donald Trump at a time when both countries are undergoing delicate trade negotiations. Globonews detailed on Monday that Lula is not expected to hold a meeting with President Trump during his stay in New York. The outlet, however, did not rule out the possibility that the two heads of state may meet on the sidelines of Tuesday’s debates, just as occurred in 2025.
According to Brazilian outlets, Lula has a scheduled encounter with Uruguayan President Yamandú Orsí prior to meeting with Mamdani. Lula and Orsí are some of the last remaining democratically elected leftist leaders in South America, a region that has seen a rise of conservative and right-wing governments over the past year, including Javier Milei in Argentina, José Antonio Kast in Chile, Abelardo de la Espriella in Colombia, and, most recently, Keiko Fujimori in Peru.
In addition to his Tuesday speech, Lula is expected to meet with U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres on the sidelines of that day’s official U.N. agenda. According to UOL, Lula will return to Brazil shortly after delivering his Tuesday speech to focus on the upcoming October 4 presidential election, where he is seeking a fourth presidential term. Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira will represent Brazil in other U.N.-related events throughout the week.
The October 4 election will feature 13 different candidates on the ballot. As such, no candidate is expected to win in the first round. Most polls project a runoff election between Lula and his closest rival, conservative Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, son of former President Jair Bolsonaro. According to recent polls, the Brazilian socialist president has seen his once comfortable lead “evaporate” in recent weeks. The polls, however, indicate that both Lula and Bolsonaro are “technically tied,” suggesting a razor-thin race between the two candidates in the prospective runoff.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.