SAO PAULO: In early May, an air of triumph filled a dinner in Beijing, where Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva celebrated a diplomatic victory: businessmen traveling with him said they had secured billions of dollars in investments as the veteran leader renewed his international prestige standing alongside his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping.
But then Brazilian first lady Rosângela da Silva, better known as Janja, raised her hand.
Although no one was expected to speak, da Silva addressed Xi, saying that Chinese social media company TikTok posed a challenge for leftists, claiming its algorithm favors right-wingers. China’s president reportedly answered. The exchange was leaked to Brazilian media by the time dessert was served.
Lula’s government is grappling with unpopularity that has dented his credentials as the frontrunner for reelection next year. Some analysts, including members of his government, attribute this partly to his wife’s perceived overstepping in what was once a ceremonial role.
Janja, a 58-year-old sociologist, has drawn criticism for insulting tech billionaire Elon Musk, mocking the suicide of a pro-Jair Bolsonaro supporter and advising the president on how to use the military during the Jan. 8, 2023 riots in the capital, Brasilia. Still, she insists she will speak out whenever it serves the public interest.
A Datafolha poll released June 12 found that 36 percent of Brazilians think the first lady’s actions hurt the government, while 14 percent say they are helpful. It was the pollster’s first measure of the first lady’s approval.
The same poll showed Lula with a 40 percent job disapproval rating, an 8 percentage point increase from October 2024.
Brazil’s presidency said in a statement to The Associated Press on June 20 that da Silva adheres to the solicitor-general’s office guidelines, adding that she “acts as a citizen, combining her public visibility with the experience she has built throughout her professional career in support of relevant social issues and matters of public interest.”
‘Undue interference’
Under guidelines published by the solicitor-general’s office, the president’s spouse primarily fulfills “a symbolically representative role on behalf of the president in a social, cultural, ceremonial, political or diplomatic nature.” For many of her critics, this does not grant her the authority to speak as a government representative.
Brazilian media have reported that government ministers, lawmakers and staunch leftist campaigners are privately raising concerns about the first lady being a hindrance more than an asset. These worries have skyrocketed since the incident in China — even as Lula himself has praised his wife for speaking out.
“It looks like Brazil is governed by a couple,” said Beatriz Rey, a political science postdoctoral and research fellow at the University of Lisbon. “When (the first lady) says there won’t be any protocols to silence her, she disrespects our democratic institutions for she has no elected office, no government position. It is not about being a woman or a feminist. It is undue interference.”
‘Present and vocal’
Lula’s first wife, Maria de Lourdes, died in 1971. His second, Marisa Letícia, died in 2017. Lula, 79, and Janja said they met in 2017 and started seeing each other frequently during the leftist leader’s 580 days in jail in the city of Curitiba between 2018 and 2019. They married in 2022.
Many supporters of Lula’s Workers’ Party partly attribute the criticism against the first lady to misinformation and disinformation. In May, the party launched the “I am with Janja” social media campaign in her defense. But the week-long effort garnered less than 100,000 views and only a few hundred comments.
“Janja is an asset because she rejuvenates Lula, everyone in the government understands that, even her critics,” a Brazilian government source told the AP. “No one wants to alienate her. But many important people in Brasilia, friends and allies of Lula, do understand that by overstepping she brings some of her rejection to the president.”
The source, who spoke under condition of anonymity for lack of authorization to speak about the matter publicly, often travels with the president and the first lady.
Adriana Negreiros, a journalist who profiled the first lady for a 2024 podcast titled “Janja,” said that allies of the president who criticize her do it with extreme caution.
”(Janja) dances, sings, speaks out, appears at official events and meetings with heads of state. She insists on being present and vocal,” Negreiros said. “There’s a lot of sexism and misogyny directed at her, no doubt. But not all criticism is sexist.”
‘She will say what she wants’
Da Silva said she doesn’t go to dinners “just to accompany” her husband.
“I have common sense. I consider myself an intelligent person. So I know very well what my limits are. I’m fully aware of that,” she told a podcast of daily Folha de S. Paulo.
Da Silva did, however, express remorse during the same podcast for the expletive she used against Musk in 2024, once a close ally of US President Donald Trump.
Many of Lula’s adversaries say they want the first lady to remain in the spotlight.
“The more she speaks, the more she holds a microphone, the more she helps the right wing,” said Nikolas Ferreira, one of Brazil’s most popular right-wing lawmakers.
Ferreira, a prominent social media figure, claims the role of regulating social media is a matter for Brazil’s Congress, not for the first lady to debate with foreign leaders like Xi.
Da Silva is also expected to play as a keen hostess at the BRICS summit in Rio on July 6-7, a role her husband is almost certain not to oppose.
“She will be wherever she wants,” Lula told journalists in March following criticism for sending the first lady as his representative to a nutrition summit in Paris that month.
“She will say what she wants and go wherever she wants.”
![]()
Brazil’s outspoken first lady is coming under fire, but she refuses to stop speaking out
Short Url
https://arab.news/grmzk
Brazil’s outspoken first lady is coming under fire, but she refuses to stop speaking out
- Lula’s government is grappling with unpopularity, some analysts including members of his government, attribute this partly to his wife’s perceived overstepping in what was once a ceremonial role
Ex-president’s war crimes trial sparks fierce debate in Kosovo
PRISTINA: In Kosovo, where former guerrilla leaders are still celebrated as heroes, the war crimes trial of ex-president Hashim Thaci and other senior commanders has reignited bitter debate over the legacy of the independence struggle.
The trial in The Hague, which hears closing statements this week, involves Thaci and three other senior figures in the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) during the 1990s war against Serbia.
All are charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity, with prosecutors alleging they bear criminal responsibility for murders, torture and illegal detentions carried out by KLA members.
Thaci, who immediately resigned from the presidency after his indictment, and his co-accused all pleaded not guilty.
But in the Balkan nation, the trial has sparked protests, political backlash, and public anger.
For many in Kosovo, the trial represents the prosecution of the KLA itself, and with it the country’s independence movement, says international relations specialist Donika Emini.
“For decades, the KLA and its members have been glorified for their role in the war, while the court has challenged this dominant narrative,” said Emini, a researcher at the University of Graz Center for Southeast European Studies.
-’Unprecedented injustice’-
The Kosovo Specialist Chambers was set up by the country’s parliament. It investigates and prosecutes suspected war crimes committed by ethnic Albanian guerrillas during the war.
Critics of the trial object to the fact that Serbia, which has never recognized Kosovo’s independence, has provided some of the evidence used at the trial. This, they argue, indicates bias in the proceedings.
The scale of atrocities committed by Serbian police and military during the war makes their involvement particularly sensitive. Thousands of ethnic Albanian victims were discovered in mass graves after the end of the war.
But the indictment against Thaci and the other defendants alleges that KLA members also committed crimes against hundreds of civilians and non-combatants at detention sites in Kosovo and northern Albania.
The victims, it says, included Serbs, Roma and Kosovo Albanians deemed political opponents.
Although the court is part of Kosovo’s judicial system, it is nevertheless based in The Hague and staffed solely by international judges in a bid to protect witnesses from possible retribution at home.
But its foreign location has fueled resentment back in Kosovo. It was hard to find anyone on the streets of the capital who supported the trial.
“This is an unprecedented injustice,” Agim Zuka, 63, told AFP in Pristina.
“There is no reason to try them. They have only fought the just war of the Albanian people of Kosovo,” 61-year-old Bahtije Rashica said.
- Protest march -
A march in support of the defendants has been organized to mark the country’s independence day — which also happens to come just before the final day of closing arguments in the trial.
Thaci’s own party organized the protest, which is expected to draw large crowds after weeks of nationwide campaigning against the trial.
Giant photos of Thaci and co-accused Kadri Veseli have also been placed in prominent squares in several towns and cities.
“This campaign has fueled resistance to the court and has been quite effective in articulating criticism for the lack of transparency and perceived inconsistencies in its work,” said the academic Emini.
But the case against the four has taken decades to build and contains extensive details of brutal crimes allegedly committed by members of the KLA between 1998 and 1999.
The prosecutors argue that, as senior figures in the armed militia, they ran a “joint criminal enterprise” that murdered, tortured, persecuted and illegally detained people at dozens of sites in Kosovo and Albania.
-’No common narrative’-
The court’s attempts at outreach have faced a backlash inside the country.
In May, a planned press briefing from its president had to be scrapped after smoke bombs were set off in front of her hotel, while school lectures from court officials drew outrage from politicians and some media outlets.
“Each decision of the Special Court not only affects individuals, but is closely linked to the history of the state and the identity of Kosovo,” said Emini.
Any outcome, particularly a guilty verdict, would change international perceptions of a “sensitive period” that had “no common narrative in the Balkans or in Kosovo,” she added.
“It will undoubtedly have symbolic consequences and will change the narrative and the way history will see Kosovo.”
The trial in The Hague, which hears closing statements this week, involves Thaci and three other senior figures in the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) during the 1990s war against Serbia.
All are charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity, with prosecutors alleging they bear criminal responsibility for murders, torture and illegal detentions carried out by KLA members.
Thaci, who immediately resigned from the presidency after his indictment, and his co-accused all pleaded not guilty.
But in the Balkan nation, the trial has sparked protests, political backlash, and public anger.
For many in Kosovo, the trial represents the prosecution of the KLA itself, and with it the country’s independence movement, says international relations specialist Donika Emini.
“For decades, the KLA and its members have been glorified for their role in the war, while the court has challenged this dominant narrative,” said Emini, a researcher at the University of Graz Center for Southeast European Studies.
-’Unprecedented injustice’-
The Kosovo Specialist Chambers was set up by the country’s parliament. It investigates and prosecutes suspected war crimes committed by ethnic Albanian guerrillas during the war.
Critics of the trial object to the fact that Serbia, which has never recognized Kosovo’s independence, has provided some of the evidence used at the trial. This, they argue, indicates bias in the proceedings.
The scale of atrocities committed by Serbian police and military during the war makes their involvement particularly sensitive. Thousands of ethnic Albanian victims were discovered in mass graves after the end of the war.
But the indictment against Thaci and the other defendants alleges that KLA members also committed crimes against hundreds of civilians and non-combatants at detention sites in Kosovo and northern Albania.
The victims, it says, included Serbs, Roma and Kosovo Albanians deemed political opponents.
Although the court is part of Kosovo’s judicial system, it is nevertheless based in The Hague and staffed solely by international judges in a bid to protect witnesses from possible retribution at home.
But its foreign location has fueled resentment back in Kosovo. It was hard to find anyone on the streets of the capital who supported the trial.
“This is an unprecedented injustice,” Agim Zuka, 63, told AFP in Pristina.
“There is no reason to try them. They have only fought the just war of the Albanian people of Kosovo,” 61-year-old Bahtije Rashica said.
- Protest march -
A march in support of the defendants has been organized to mark the country’s independence day — which also happens to come just before the final day of closing arguments in the trial.
Thaci’s own party organized the protest, which is expected to draw large crowds after weeks of nationwide campaigning against the trial.
Giant photos of Thaci and co-accused Kadri Veseli have also been placed in prominent squares in several towns and cities.
“This campaign has fueled resistance to the court and has been quite effective in articulating criticism for the lack of transparency and perceived inconsistencies in its work,” said the academic Emini.
But the case against the four has taken decades to build and contains extensive details of brutal crimes allegedly committed by members of the KLA between 1998 and 1999.
The prosecutors argue that, as senior figures in the armed militia, they ran a “joint criminal enterprise” that murdered, tortured, persecuted and illegally detained people at dozens of sites in Kosovo and Albania.
-’No common narrative’-
The court’s attempts at outreach have faced a backlash inside the country.
In May, a planned press briefing from its president had to be scrapped after smoke bombs were set off in front of her hotel, while school lectures from court officials drew outrage from politicians and some media outlets.
“Each decision of the Special Court not only affects individuals, but is closely linked to the history of the state and the identity of Kosovo,” said Emini.
Any outcome, particularly a guilty verdict, would change international perceptions of a “sensitive period” that had “no common narrative in the Balkans or in Kosovo,” she added.
“It will undoubtedly have symbolic consequences and will change the narrative and the way history will see Kosovo.”
Latest updates
Recommended
© 2026 SAUDI RESEARCH & PUBLISHING COMPANY, All Rights Reserved And subject to Terms of Use Agreement.