Brazil Prez Lula's wife Rosangela curses out Elon Musk ahead of G-20 summit

By Simone Iglesias    “F—- you, Elon Musk,” Brazil’s first lady said as her husband geared up to host a high-stakes summit of Group of 20 leaders.

Rosangela da Silva, the wife of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, took aim at the billionaire owner of the X platform at a Saturday event in Rio de Janeiro while talking about the need to regulate social media networks and combat fake news.

 

The feud has been brewing between Lula’s camp and the world’s richest man since even before Brazil’s Supreme Court blocked access to X earlier this year. Janja, as the first lady is known, last year threatened to sue the social media company after an apparent hack of her account, accusing Musk of failing to adequately respond.

 

 

Musk later responded on X to a video of Janja cursing him, saying “they will lose the next election.” Brazil’s next presidential contest is in 2026. Leftist Lula had a razor-thin victory over far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro in 2022.

 

Lula moved quickly into damage control mode. After Janja spoke at the event he said that “we don’t have to offend or curse anyone.” A spokesperson for Janja declined to comment on Sunday morning.

 

Bolsonaro, Lula’s arch rival who Musk openly backs, immediately seized on the episode to criticize the government on social media. On Sunday morning, he shared a video of a meeting with Musk during his presidency, when the government sought support for projects to deliver Internet to remote regions like the Amazon rainforest. 

 

Musk is also a major supporter of President-elect Donald Trump, who tapped him to co-lead a new government efficiency effort — and whose November election victory has already clouded Lula’s G-20 ambitions and set the stage for conflicts between the US and Brazil over their trade, environmental and economic policies.

 

Brazilian officials close to the president have downplayed the potential impact of the remarks, and Lula’s government trying to ignore the dust-up in an effort to keep it from overshadowing his G-20 agenda, according to people with knowledge of the situation who requested anonymity to discuss internal matters.

 

But it has nevertheless generated concerns that the comments gave Bolsonaro’s movement an opening to criticize the government during an event that had otherwise sidelined Lula’s opponents and put the president at the center of the global stage, the people said.

 

Influential First Lady 

Brazilian presidential spouses have typically played far less prominent roles than first ladies in the US and some other nations. But Janja has emerged as a central figure in Brazilian politics since her relationship with Lula first became public in 2019.

 

The couple married in 2022, five years after they began dating shortly before Lula was sent to prison on a corruption conviction. Janja was among the president’s supporters who camped outside the jail where Lula was incarcerated, and they often exchanged love letters throughout his 580-day stint behind bars. 

 

The social media-savvy sociologist served as fixture in Lula campaign events throughout his 2022 presidential run, and has become an influential and heavily scrutinized player in his government since his return to the top job. Unlike Lula’s first wife, who died after a stroke in 2017 during the investigations into him, she regularly weighs in on internal policy debates, at times dictates access to the leftist leader and has shaped the government’s public messaging.

 

The president has long credited her for his personal and political rejuvenation. She has even shaped the G-20 schedule, organizing a series of concerts and events that some Brazilians have dubbed “Janjapalooza” — a play on the name of the popular music festival.

 

Her active role in the government and the president’s political decision-making has at times irked others inside the government and coalition parties, generating criticism that she has isolated Lula from some allies. 

 

But it has also fueled her own popularity in a deeply polarized nation, fostering speculation among some within the leftist Workers’ Party that she is a potential successor once Lula eventually steps aside — whether ahead of the 2026 presidential election or in subsequent races. 

 

Nearly half of Brazilians said they had a positive image of their first lady in LatAm Pulse, a survey conducted by AtlasIntel for Bloomberg News in October. Only Lula himself earned higher marks.

 

 

© 2024 Bloomberg L.P.