17/04/2026 – 17:20 GMT+2
Lula and Sánchez are both outspoken in their criticism of US President Donald Trump, who has threatened both with punitive tariffs.
Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva told Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez “I understand you when you say no to war,” at the start of a two-day visit to Spain to attend the weekend’s In Defence of Democracy summit.
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Lula recalled “the horror suffered by Spain” during World War II, noting that “several regions of the world are in conflict again” and that “we are witnessing, astonished, a new arms race: women and children are dying, AI is replacing ethics; that is why I completely understand when you say no to war.”
Lula and Sánchez, who will meet with other leaders concerned about the fate of the democratic order and the rise of populism, are both outspoken in their criticism of US President Donald Trump, who has threatened both with punitive tariffs.
They are considered standard-bearers of progressive or liberal politics on their respective continents, where reactionary parties and far-right populism have been on the rise for years.
Lula and Sánchez, along with ministers from their cabinets, met at a former royal palace in Barcelona on Friday when they were expected to sign agreements regarding their economies, technology and social policies.
Their bilateral meeting will be prelude for the following day’s double dose of gatherings when Lula and Sánchez confer with other leaders at two events inside a sprawling conference centre in Spain’s second city.
‘Not anti-Trump’
The first gathering on Saturday is the IV Meeting in Defence of Democracy. The event was launched by Brazil and Spain in 2024 as a forum to exchange ideas aimed at combating the “extremism, polarisation and misinformation” that undermines participatory democracy, the organisers say.
The first two editions of this event were held at the United Nations and the previous one was in Chile last year.
While both Lula and Sánchez have spoken out against many of Trump’s positions and policies, including his decision to attack Iran along with Israel, Lula said that the multilateral summit should not been seen in that vein.
“This is not going to going to be an anti-Trump meeting,” Lula told Spanish newspaper El País on Thursday. “We are going to discuss the state of democracy, to see what went wrong and what we have to do to repair it.”
Sánchez’s government declared its airspace closed to US planes being used in the Iran war, and said it is not allowing the US to use jointly operated military bases in southern Spain for actions related to the war.
Earlier this week, Lula released a video message expressing “deep solidarity” with Pope Leo XIV following public criticisms made by Trump after the pontiff criticised the war.
This edition will include the presence of European Council president António Costa, Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum, South African president Cyril Ramaphosa, Colombia’s president Gustavo Petro and other leaders of countries from Uruguay and Lithuania to Ghana and Albania.
Sheinbaum’s participation comes after Spain’s King Felipe VI ironed out a longstanding diplomatic dispute regarding Spain’s colonial past when he recently acknowledged the Spanish conquest of the Americas had led to the “abuse” of native peoples.
At a time that Latin America has felt a rightward political swing and mounting pressure by the Trump administration, Sheinbaum has become one of the most powerful leftist voices in the hemisphere.
She enjoys soaring approval in Mexico and has been able to strike a careful balance between maintaining a strong relationship with Trump, while pushing back on key issues like Latin American sovereignty.
Rallying the Left
Many of the leaders from the first event will stay put for the inaugural Global Progressive Mobilisation, held at the same venue later on Saturday.
The gathering of left-leaning politicians and policymakers was launched after Sánchez and former Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven, who is now President of the Party of European Socialists, discussed the idea at a meeting of European Socialists last year.
Sánchez and Lula will both give speeches at the event, which is expected to have 3,000 attendees, including US Democratic Senator Chris Murphy, and feature round tables dedicated to issues ranging from wage inequality to how to improve election results for progressives.
The meeting comes amid a busy week for Sánchez, who just returned from meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, his fourth trip to Beijing in just over three years.
