Lula meets Guterres and urges G20 Social at future summits

G20 Social's final declaration, presented by civil society representatives, advocates for progressive taxation of the super-rich Following a meeting with United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on Saturday morning, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva announced his proposal for the future inclusion of a G20 Social summit alongside the main G20 event. This meeting marked Lula's first bilateral discussion as he prepares for the principal summit set to take place next week in Rio. G20 in Rio: See how traffic and commerce will be during the mega-holiday in the capital Fun in Rio: 20 paired activities for the G20 holiday weekend in Rio de Janeiro Preceding the G20 summit: Brazil is concerned that Milei might pose challenges at the G20 summit and, after meeting with Trump, may extend gestures towards Bolsonaro. "I informed the UN Secretary-General, @antonioguterres, that we will engage with the upcoming hosts of @g20org to adopt the practice of holding a G20 Social, listening to the demands of social movements and civil society," Lula posted on Instagram following his meeting with Guterres. Initial plugin text In a video on his X profile, Lula mentioned inviting South African President Cyril Ramaphosa to participate in the closing ceremony of the social summit to "encourage him to host a G20 Social" next year. South Africa is slated to host the next summit, and according to Minister Márcio Macedo, who heads Brazil's General Secretariat of the Presidency, the country has already shown interest in maintaining the event. During this morning's meeting, Lula was accompanied by Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira, Special Presidential Advisor Celso Amorim, and Environment Minister Marina Silva. Around midday, Lula departed the meeting venue to attend the closing ceremony of the social summit, held this afternoon at the Olympic Boulevard. Initial plugin text xiencontro da cúpula principal do G20, que acontece noinício da prói semana que vem Minutes earlier, the final declaration of the G20 Social, read by civil society representatives in Rio, advocated for "progressive taxation of the super-rich," emphasized that democracy "is at risk when far-right forces promote disinformation," and called for a reform of the UN Security Council to include more representation from the Global South. President Lula is expected to receive the document later on Saturday. Following the reading, the declaration was unanimously approved by the audience at Warehouse 3 in Praça Mauá, which included representatives of social movements. The document was read by Mazé Morais, the national secretary for Women's Affairs at Contag (National Confederation of Agricultural Workers), representing Brazilian civil society at the ceremony. The document, which GLOBO accessed in full, directly references the need to reform the United Nations Security Council to better reflect "contemporary geopolitics" and the aspirations of the "Global South." The call for reforming multilateral organizations and taxing the super-rich forms part of Brazil's priority agenda and is included in the G20 Summit negotiations. However, consensus on taxing billionaires is at risk after Argentina withdrew its previous support for the initiative. There is anticipation that the call for taxing the super-rich will also appear in the G20 summit's final declaration, despite last-minute resistance from Argentina under President Javier Milei. The translation of this text into english was carried out by Project Irineu, O GLOBO's initiative to develop artificial intelligence tools. Here is the link to the original report.