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SAO PAULO: In early May, an air of triumph filled a dinner in Beijing, where Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva celebrated a diplomatic victory: businessmen traveling with him said they had secured billions of dollars in investments as the veteran leader renewed his international prestige standing alongside his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping.
But then Brazilian first lady Rosângela da Silva, better known as Janja, raised her hand.
Although no one was expected to speak, da Silva addressed Xi, saying that Chinese social media company TikTok posed a challenge for leftists, claiming its algorithm favors right-wingers. China’s president reportedly answered. The exchange was leaked to Brazilian media by the time dessert was served.
Lula’s government is grappling with unpopularity that has dented his credentials as the frontrunner for reelection next year. Some analysts, including members of his government, attribute this partly to his wife’s perceived overstepping in what was once a ceremonial role.
Janja, a 58-year-old sociologist, has drawn criticism for insulting tech billionaire Elon Musk, mocking the suicide of a pro-Jair Bolsonaro supporter and advising the president on how to use the military during the Jan. 8, 2023 riots in the capital, Brasilia. Still, she insists she will speak out whenever it serves the public interest.
A Datafolha poll released June 12 found that 36 percent of Brazilians think the first lady’s actions hurt the government, while 14 percent say they are helpful. It was the pollster’s first measure of the first lady’s approval.
The same poll showed Lula with a 40 percent job disapproval rating, an 8 percentage point increase from October 2024.
Brazil’s presidency said in a statement to The Associated Press on June 20 that da Silva adheres to the solicitor-general’s office guidelines, adding that she “acts as a citizen, combining her public visibility with the experience she has built throughout her professional career in support of relevant social issues and matters of public interest.”
‘Undue interference’
Under guidelines published by the solicitor-general’s office, the president’s spouse primarily fulfills “a symbolically representative role on behalf of the president in a social, cultural, ceremonial, political or diplomatic nature.” For many of her critics, this does not grant her the authority to speak as a government representative.
Brazilian media have reported that government ministers, lawmakers and staunch leftist campaigners are privately raising concerns about the first lady being a hindrance more than an asset. These worries have skyrocketed since the incident in China — even as Lula himself has praised his wife for speaking out.
“It looks like Brazil is governed by a couple,” said Beatriz Rey, a political science postdoctoral and research fellow at the University of Lisbon. “When (the first lady) says there won’t be any protocols to silence her, she disrespects our democratic institutions for she has no elected office, no government position. It is not about being a woman or a feminist. It is undue interference.”
‘Present and vocal’
Lula’s first wife, Maria de Lourdes, died in 1971. His second, Marisa Letícia, died in 2017. Lula, 79, and Janja said they met in 2017 and started seeing each other frequently during the leftist leader’s 580 days in jail in the city of Curitiba between 2018 and 2019. They married in 2022.
Many supporters of Lula’s Workers’ Party partly attribute the criticism against the first lady to misinformation and disinformation. In May, the party launched the “I am with Janja” social media campaign in her defense. But the week-long effort garnered less than 100,000 views and only a few hundred comments.
“Janja is an asset because she rejuvenates Lula, everyone in the government understands that, even her critics,” a Brazilian government source told the AP. “No one wants to alienate her. But many important people in Brasilia, friends and allies of Lula, do understand that by overstepping she brings some of her rejection to the president.”
The source, who spoke under condition of anonymity for lack of authorization to speak about the matter publicly, often travels with the president and the first lady.
Adriana Negreiros, a journalist who profiled the first lady for a 2024 podcast titled “Janja,” said that allies of the president who criticize her do it with extreme caution.
”(Janja) dances, sings, speaks out, appears at official events and meetings with heads of state. She insists on being present and vocal,” Negreiros said. “There’s a lot of sexism and misogyny directed at her, no doubt. But not all criticism is sexist.”
‘She will say what she wants’
Da Silva said she doesn’t go to dinners “just to accompany” her husband.
“I have common sense. I consider myself an intelligent person. So I know very well what my limits are. I’m fully aware of that,” she told a podcast of daily Folha de S. Paulo.
Da Silva did, however, express remorse during the same podcast for the expletive she used against Musk in 2024, once a close ally of US President Donald Trump.
Many of Lula’s adversaries say they want the first lady to remain in the spotlight.
“The more she speaks, the more she holds a microphone, the more she helps the right wing,” said Nikolas Ferreira, one of Brazil’s most popular right-wing lawmakers.
Ferreira, a prominent social media figure, claims the role of regulating social media is a matter for Brazil’s Congress, not for the first lady to debate with foreign leaders like Xi.
Da Silva is also expected to play as a keen hostess at the BRICS summit in Rio on July 6-7, a role her husband is almost certain not to oppose.
“She will be wherever she wants,” Lula told journalists in March following criticism for sending the first lady as his representative to a nutrition summit in Paris that month.
“She will say what she wants and go wherever she wants.”

DEHRADUN, India: Tibetans in exile celebrate the 90th birthday of spiritual leader the Dalai Lama next week, an occasion overshadowed by uncertainty about the future of the role and what it means for their movement.

The charismatic Nobel Peace Prize-winning Buddhist – who Tibetans say is the 14th reincarnation of the 600-year-old post – will reveal if there will be another Dalai Lama after him.

The inevitable change ahead brings wider concerns for Tibetans over the struggle to keep their identity alive after generations in exile, following a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule.

There is widespread support among Tibetans in exile for the Dalai Lama role to remain, said Dawa Tashi, once jailed in Tibet for his criticism of Beijing.

The Dalai Lama has said the institution will continue only if there is popular demand.

“I strongly believe the reincarnation of the 14th Dalai Lama will continue,” said Tashi, of the India-based Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy.

“This hope is not only shared by Tibetans inside and outside Tibet, but by thousands who are connected to the Dalai Lama across the world,” he said.

The leader, who turns 90 on July 6, and thousands of other Tibetans have lived in exile in India since Chinese troops crushed the uprising in the Tibetan capital Lhasa.

The Dalai Lama has been lauded by his followers for his tireless campaign for greater autonomy for Tibet, a vast high-altitude plateau in China about the size of South Africa.

The Dalai Lama handed over political authority in 2011 to an exiled government chosen democratically by 130,000 Tibetans globally.

At the same time, he warned that the future of his spiritual post faced an “obvious risk of vested political interests misusing the reincarnation system.”

Many Tibetans in exile fear China will name a successor to bolster its control over Tibet.

The Dalai Lama has said that if there is a successor it will come from the “free world” outside China’s control.

The Dalai Lama has long said he does not seek full independence for Tibet.

Beijing says the territory is an integral part of China and that the Dalai Lama “has no right to represent the Tibetan people.”

Whatever the Dalai Lama decides about his role, “the freedom movement must continue regardless,” said Kunga Tashi, a 23-year-old Tibetan software engineer in India’s tech hub Bengaluru.

“The Chinese government and even Tibetans still equate the Dalai Lama with the freedom struggle,” he said. “And that is why his reincarnation feels like a turning point.”

The Dalai Lama, recognized worldwide in his red robes and wide smile, lives an austere monastic life in India’s Himalayan hill town of McLeod Ganj. He has said he wants to live until 113.

Penpa Tsering, the sikyong or head of the government which is also based in McLeod Ganj, said that senior Buddhist elders, or lamas, will meet the Dalai Lama on July 2.

The same day they will open the grand meeting of religious leaders, during which a video message by the Dalai Lama will be broadcast.

No details of its message have been released.

The Dalai Lama’s translator of nearly four decades, Thupten Jinpa, believes that “the continuity of the institution will remain,” meaning that, in time, there “will be a new Dalai Lama.”

“Today, many young Tibetans prioritize personal success over collective struggle,” said Geshema Tenzin Kunsel, a nun in her 50s from Dolma Ling Nunnery, near McLeod Ganj.

“In his absence, I fear what our future might look like.”

Tibetans who spoke to AFP say they will keep up their campaign no matter what happens in the coming weeks.

“While we haven’t yet achieved our goal of returning to a free Tibet, we’ve come further than anyone could have imagined – and that’s because of His Holiness (the Dalai Lama),” said Sonam Topgyal, 26, a university student in New Delhi.

Nepal-based Sakina Batt, 35, a former civil servant with the Tibetan administration, is part of Tibet’s minority Muslim population.

She too believes that the reincarnation process should “continue as it has for generations, preserving its sacred tradition without interruption.”

But she also said that it depended on the people, not just one leader.

“The future of Tibetans depends on unity and resilience,” she said. “It’s ultimately up to us to shape our own destiny.”