Populist approaches in Brazilian foreign policy: A study of Lula and Bolsonaro’s discourses

This study compares the foreign policy discourses of Brazilian presidents Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Jair Bolsonaro in their speeches to the United Nations General Assembly. Brazil provides a valuable case: both leaders operated within the same presidential system and international context yet displayed sharply contrasting ideological orientations and leadership styles. This setting allows us to examine how populist style interacts with structural and institutional continuity. Drawing on the variables proposed by Sandra Destradi and Johannes Plagemann – conflict-prone bilateralism, rejection of global governance, personalised policymaking and new international alliances – refined through Benjamin Moffitt’s concept of populism as a performative style, we conduct a qualitative discourse analysis using ATLAS.ti. The findings show Bolsonaro consistently displaying core populist features, whereas Lula’s discourse combines moralised critique and limited personalisation within a cooperative multilateral framework, suggesting that populist foreign policy operates along a spectrum shaped by ideology, leadership style and strategic repertoires.