Lula added Madrid to his trip home from Asia to meet Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on Monday, two weeks before Spain's snap election. Vox MEP Hermann Tertsch called him a 'master of electoral fraud,' and the Socialists have already cancelled the campaign event they had planned with him.
MADRID — President Lula changed the route of his trip home from Asia to stop in Madrid on Monday, Nov. 16, and meet Spain’s Socialist prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, who is fighting for his political life two weeks before a snap general election on Nov. 29. The Spanish government announced the visit on Nov. 12 as an official meeting at the Moncloa Palace. The Socialist Party (PSOE) had also scheduled a public conversation between the two men at the UGT union hall in Madrid, a campaign event, until it cancelled it on Saturday, Nov. 14, citing a loss of voice by Lula, the EFE news agency reported. The official meeting stays on the agenda.
The detour drew an immediate answer from the Spanish right. Hermann Tertsch, a member of the European Parliament for Vox, wrote on X on Friday that “Lula, master of electoral fraud, corrupt and a prisoner irregularly released, is coming to Spain to give Sánchez the final lessons in electoral swindle,” according to Gazeta do Povo, which also cited his remark about “narco-socialist ties” and “support for Iran.” In a second post he called Lula “undesirable.” Brazil’s presidency did not respond to Gazeta’s request for comment.
A president who calls himself a defender of democracy flies across an ocean to stand next to a candidate two weeks before the vote. In Madrid, it is called an official visit.
The route was not the original plan. Lula went to Antalya, Turkey, for the COP31 climate summit, then to Manila for a state visit, and according to El País his Spanish counterpart’s team spent two weeks persuading him to add a third stop. SBT News reported that Lula “decided to extend” the trip. Deputy André Janones, who ran the digital strategy of Lula’s own campaign and who traveled with him to Turkey, is expected in Madrid, CNN Brasil reported. Moncloa and the PSOE say Janones does not advise the Sánchez campaign.
Why it matters
Sánchez called the election early amid a crisis in parliament and trails in almost every poll. A 40dB survey for El País and Cadena SER gives the conservative Popular Party and Vox together more than 190 of the 350 seats, well above the 176 needed for a majority. His ministers have adopted a slogan, “First Brazil, then Spain,” using Lula’s October win over Flávio Bolsonaro as proof the right can be stopped. For Americans, this is not Spanish domestic politics alone. Lula and Sánchez sealed a “progressive alliance” in Barcelona in April to build a front against what they call the global far right, and Lula is the same leader who has been courting Iran while the United States fights to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
A partnership with a long record
The two men have stood together for years. Lula visited Madrid in April 2023, Sánchez came to the Planalto Palace in March 2024, and in April 2026 they shared the stage at the Global Progressive Mobilisation in Barcelona, where La Nación reported that Lula all but named Sánchez his political heir. When Lula won in October, Sánchez posted: “Great victory for Lula!” Now the favor is being returned on Spanish soil, on an official schedule paid for by Brazilian taxpayers.
The record
What is documented: the Moncloa announcement of the Nov. 16 meeting; the Nov. 29 election date; the PSOE’s cancellation of the UGT event, reported by EFE and El Español; Tertsch’s posts as published by Gazeta do Povo; and the polls cited. What is not: Tertsch offered no evidence for his accusations of electoral fraud or of an irregular release, and they remain his claims. The cost of the Madrid stop and the full delegation have not been disclosed, and the Brazilian presidency has not explained why the stop was added.
Lula’s government spends its days warning about foreign interference in elections, and he has accused American tech companies of trying to meddle in Brazil’s. Yet the Brazilian president is using a state visit to lift a foreign ally two weeks before that ally faces voters. For the 42% of Brazilians who told AtlasIntel they consider his re-election a fraud, a Vox lawmaker in Brussels has just said out loud what they say at home, and it took a trip to Madrid for European voters to hear it.
The Watch Post Daily will continue to follow this story. Sources: Gazeta do Povo (report by Fábio Galão); MercoPress; EFE via Infobae; El Español; El País via La Nación; CNN Brasil; SBT News.
Featured image: Pedro Sánchez and Lula at the Global Progressive Mobilisation in Barcelona, April 18, 2026 by Lula Oficial, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
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