Brazil's Lula slams UN Security Council at progressive leaders' summit in Spain

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva strongly criticised the members of the United Nations Security Council during the Meeting in Defence of Democracy in Spain on Saturday.

Progressive leaders from around the globe gathered in Spain to galvanize their forces and defend the multilateral rules-based order in a world turning to the right and violently torn by superpowers.

Lula singled out permanent members of the UN Security Council, accusing them of imposing their decisions on the rest of the world.

"We cannot wake up every morning and go to sleep every night with a president's Twitter account threatening the world, making war. In other words, they all make decisions without consulting the UN, of which they are members and part of the council," he said.

Lula also expressed solidarity with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who has been facing the ire of United States President Donald Trump.

The US leader excluded South Africa from the upcoming G20 summit in Miami in December 2026.

"We're going to fight, Ramaphosa, for you to go to the G20 in the United States because the American president doesn't have the right to remove you from the G20, because he doesn't own the G20," Lula said.

Other summit attendees included Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and Colombian President Gustavo Petro.

Later in the day, Sánchez, Lula and Ramaphosa stayed put at the convention centre to attend the inaugural Global Progressive Mobilisation, where some 3,000 left-leaning elected officials, policy analysts and activists exchanged ideas.