The official trips abroad of Lula and his government team cost R$7.3 million, according to information from Itamaraty published by Folha de S. Paolo. The calculation does not include the president’s recent visits to Italy, the Vatican and France.
In six months of reign, Batista made twice as many official outings as his predecessor in the same period – 12 versus six. The trip with the highest expenditure on accommodation was to China, which cost R$1.8 million in five days. The cost of one in the United Kingdom was R$1.4 million, in Portugal R$1 million, and in Spain R$815,000.
Accommodation expenses are only a portion of the amount invested in these endeavors. On the occasion of his four-day visit to Argentina for the CELAC summit, Lula’s entourage spent R$715.8 thousand on accommodation, but also R$337.6 thousand on daily allowance for servers, R$497.9 thousand on vehicle rental and R$24.6 thousand on hiring interpreters. , among other costs.
Lula’s government argues that the trips are part of an effort to resume diplomatic relations with the world after Jair Bolsonaro’s government, but a good part of the Workers’ Party agenda abroad, with its obsession with mediating the crisis in Ukraine, appears to serve more for self-propaganda than to improve an image. Brazil.
