Die EU hat Brasiliens Ex-Präsident Lula da Silva zu seiner Wiederwahl gratuliert. Man freue sich auf die Zusammenarbeit bei Themen wie Ernährungssicherheit, Handel oder Klimawandel, sagte Kommissionschefin von der Leyen. Die Ukraine erwähnte sie nicht – Lula gibt der EU eine Mitschuld am Krieg.

Dies geht aus einem Interview hervor, das das “Time”-Magazin im Mai mit Lula geführt hat. Hier einige Auszüge des Gesprächs zur Ukraine, der EU und Präsident Selenskyj (Hervorhebungen von mir)

Zur Mitschuld der USA und der EU am Ukraine-Krieg:

We politicians reap what we sow. If I sow fraternity, solidarity, harmony, I’ll reap good things. If I sow discord, I’ll reap quarrels. Putin shouldn’t have invaded Ukraine. But it’s not just Putin who is guilty. The U.S. and the E.U. are also guilty. What was the reason for the Ukraine invasion? NATO? Then the U.S. and Europe should have said: “Ukraine won’t join NATO.” That would have solved the problem.

The other issue was Ukraine joining the E.U. The Europeans could have said: “No, now is not the moment for Ukraine to join the E.U., we’ll wait.” They didn’t have to encourage the confrontation.

(But I think they did try to speak to Russia.) No, they didn’t. The conversations were very few. If you want peace, you have to have patience. They could have sat at a negotiating table for 10, 15, 20 days, a whole month, trying to find a solution. I think dialogue only works when it is taken seriously.

Zu Selenskyj:

And now, sometimes I sit and watch the President of Ukraine speaking on television, being applauded, getting a standing ovation by all the [European] parliamentarians. This guy is as responsible as Putin for the war. Because in the war, there’s not just one person guilty. (…)

I don’t know the President of Ukraine. But his behavior is a bit weird. It seems like he’s part of the spectacle. He is on television morning, noon, and night. He is in the U.K. parliament, the German parliament, the French parliament, the Italian parliament, as if he were waging a political campaign. He should be at the negotiating table.

He did want war. If he didn’t want war, he would have negotiated a little more. That’s it. I criticized Putin when I was in Mexico City [in March], saying that it was a mistake to invade. But I don’t think anyone is trying to help create peace. People are stimulating hate against Putin. That won’t solve things! We need to reach an agreement. But people are encouraging [the war].

Kritisch äußerte sich Lula übrigens auch zur EU-Politik gegenüber Venezuela. Es sei ein Fehler gewesen, den Oppositionspolitiker Guaido als Präsidenten anzuerkennen, denn er war nicht gewählt. “You don’t play with democracy”, so Lula. “Bureaucracy can’t substitute politics.”

Den Brüsseler Bürokraten müssen heute noch die Ohren klingeln…

Mehr zum Ukraine-Krieg hier