Mark Carney Isn’t the “Leader of the Free World.” Lula Is.
Newspapers around the world have anointed Canada’s prime minister the new “leader of the free world.” But Lula links democracy to economic equality and solidarity, while Mark Carney revives the technocratic neoliberalism that helped create its crisis.
Centrists everywhere may want to coronate Mark Carney as the “leader of the free world.” But Lula, despite his recent election woes, still offers a democratic vision attuned to people’s needs, while Carney offers little more than neoliberalism redux. (Dave Chan / AFP via Getty Images)
The headlines say it all: “Meet the New Leader of the Free World. No, It’s Not Donald Trump.” “Canada’s Carney Claims Mantle of ‘Leader of the Free World.’” “How Mark Carney Became Leader of the Free World by Standing Up to Trump.” Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is not just incredibly popular at home but, increasingly, around the world. Now there is even talk of him winning the Nobel Peace Prize.
It is a comforting fiction for those terrified by Donald Trump. But if any leader deserves such a title, it is not Canada’s ex-banker prime minister but Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
The reason is simple: Lula has done more to protect democracy and promote a fair global system than Carney has. And the point is more than academic. Lula will face off with Flávio Bolsonaro, son of the former president who attempted to overturn Brazil’s last election, on October 25 in the second round of the presidential election. The contest will determine whether Latin America’s biggest democracy maintains its resistance to the global far right or rejoins its ranks.
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