Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva launched a sharp attack on the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council on Saturday, describing them as "lords of war" who act like "emperors" imposing decisions on the rest of the world. His remarks came at the Meeting in Defence of Democracy, a gathering of progressive leaders held in Barcelona, Spain, convened to shore up multilateral institutions and counter a perceived global rightward shift.
Lula argued that the Security Council's permanent members — the United States, China, Russia, France and the United Kingdom, each holding veto power — routinely sideline the broader UN membership when making consequential decisions. "We cannot wake up every morning and go to sleep every night with a president's Twitter account threatening the world, making war," he said, without naming any individual leader directly. "They all make decisions without consulting the UN, of which they are members and part of the council."
The Brazilian leader also took aim at a specific diplomatic flashpoint: the reported exclusion of South Africa from the upcoming G20 summit scheduled for Miami in December 2026. US President Donald Trump has reportedly moved to bar South African President Cyril Ramaphosa from the gathering, a decision Lula publicly rejected. "The American president doesn't have the right to remove you from the G20 because he doesn't own the G20," Lula told Ramaphosa directly during the summit session. South Africa and the US have been engaged in a broader diplomatic dispute in recent months.
The Barcelona meeting drew a number of left-leaning heads of state, including Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and Colombian President Gustavo Petro. The day concluded with the inaugural Global Progressive Mobilisation, a parallel forum drawing some 3,000 elected officials, policy analysts and activists to exchange strategies on defending democratic norms and multilateral cooperation.
The gathering reflects growing anxiety among progressive governments about the durability of the international rules-based order at a time of mounting geopolitical tensions. By directing criticism at the Security Council as a whole rather than singling out one power, Lula positioned Brazil as a voice for the Global South — countries that frequently argue they bear the consequences of great-power decisions in which they have no formal say.