French President Emmanuel Macron's visit to Brazil, culminated on Thursday. Social media, however, is having a field day with the pictures from the visit. Several images of Macron and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva have been turned into memes.
Internet trolls have said the images that exude bromance seem like wedding pictures. The French president has taken the memes in their stride. Leaning into the memes, he posted a meme featuring the two, which makes it seem that they're in a dance sequence from the movie La La Land.
Sharing the image, Macron wrote, “Some people compared the images of my visit to Brazil with those of a wedding, and I tell them: it was a wedding! France loves Brazil and Brazil loves France!
Thank you, @LulaOficial and @JanjaLula, thank you to all the Brazilians I met for the welcome.”
He went on to mention the talking points between the two leaders during the visit and wrote, “We set an important goal for April 2025: resume the intercultural seasons between Brazil and France. We also decided to increase scientific, artistic and student exchanges.”
“We share values at the core of our common history. We just opened a new chapter in our relationship! Long live the friendship between Brazil and France!” he wrote.
One of the images turned into a meme included one from a cruise they took on the Amazonian river, where Macron seems to be looking adoringly at Lula. In another one, the two leaders are seen holding hands while looking up at a soaring canopy of trees.
Lula, before Macron departed from Brazil, bestowed the highest honour for a non-citizen on Macron, draping a medal around his neck. This was Macron's first visit to Brazil as president. In 2023, Lula had commented on the Ukraine-Russia war and said that the US and European Union were “stimulating” the fighting. In 2023, Macron skipped the Amazon Summit in the Brazilian city of Belem last year. He instead sent France's ambassador.
During the visit, Macron and Lula agreed on a green investment plan to spend 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) on the Amazon. While Lula's predecessor Jair Bolsonaro remained indifferent towards deforestation in the Amazon rainforest, during Lula's first year, deforestation fell by half.
