NEW YORK CITY, NY — President Lula spent Monday morning holding a series of bilateral meetings with the hemisphere’s left-aligned leaders in New York City — including New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Senator Bernie Sanders — a day before he is set to open the 81st United Nations General Assembly’s general debate, and just weeks before Brazil’s own presidential election.
Lula’s day of meetings began with Uruguayan President Yamandú Orsi, his ideological ally and, alongside Lula, one of only two left-aligned heads of state currently in power in South America.
At 11:30 a.m. New York time, Lula met with Mamdani at the official residence of Brazil’s ambassador to the U.N., where all of Monday’s meetings took place.
In the evening, Lula received U.S. Senator Sanders. According to Brazil’s Palácio do Planalto, Lula received approximately 30 requests for bilateral meetings during his New York stay, though his schedule was deliberately kept shorter than usual because of Brazil’s ongoing election period.
Why Mamdani?
The meeting with Mamdani originated from the mayor’s own request, according to Brazilian outlet Brasil 247, which reported that Brazil’s Foreign Ministry (Itamaraty) had been negotiating the meeting before Lula’s trip even began.
Notably, this was not Mamdani’s first attempt to secure an audience with Lula: he had previously requested a meeting in 2025, while still a candidate for mayor, though that meeting never materialized.
Mamdani took office as New York’s mayor on January 1, 2026, becoming the first Muslim to hold the position. Identified with the American left and describing himself as a democratic socialist, Mamdani built his political rise around expanding affordable housing, reducing the cost of living, freezing rents, and exploring alternatives for public transportation.
He has also taken public positions supportive of the Palestinian cause, an area of some overlap with stances Brazil’s government has taken in international debates.
The specific agenda for the Lula-Mamdani meeting was not disclosed.
Traditional Timing, Ahead of Brazil’s Speech
Brazil holds the traditional honor of being the first country to speak at the U.N. General Assembly’s general debate each year, a role Lula will fulfill Tuesday morning, September 22.
Lula arrived in the United States on Sunday, and plans to return to Brazil on Tuesday around midday, shortly after his address — an unusually compressed schedule reflecting the demands of his ongoing reelection campaign back home.
Beyond Monday’s meetings, Lula is also scheduled to meet with UN Secretary-General António Guterres during General Assembly week — notably Guterres’s final High-Level Week as secretary-general, since his second term concludes December 31, 2026.
A Trip Read Through the Lens of Brazil’s Election
Brazilian political analysis of the trip has connected it directly to the country’s tightening presidential race against Flávio Bolsonaro, now just weeks from the October 4 first-round vote.
Commentary circulating around the visit has framed the Mamdani and Sanders meetings as a deliberate alignment gesture with the U.S. left at a politically sensitive moment, while other observers have questioned why Lula would travel internationally during such an active campaign period at all, raising questions about the trip’s effect on his ability to participate in scheduled campaign debates back home. Some reactions referenced Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in connection with the visit, largely as political commentary rather than substantive elements of the meetings themselves.
Monday’s meetings extend a dynamic we’ve covered in detail this September: Lula skipped the BRICS summit in New Delhi earlier this month specifically to campaign in southern Brazil, then used a subsequent address to warn Brazilians that their own oil and mineral resources could suffer the fate Venezuela’s did under the new U.S.-Venezuela deal, urging voters to keep “Brazilian resources in Brazilian hands.”
Lula’s New York appearance now adds an international dimension to that same closing-stretch campaign messaging — visible engagement with ideologically aligned figures abroad, compressed as tightly as possible around Brazil’s own election calendar.
With Lula’s U.N. address set for Tuesday morning and his return to Brazil planned for the same day, attention will turn to how his brief but high-profile New York visit — and specifically his meetings with Mamdani and Sanders — factors into the final two weeks of campaigning before Brazil’s October 4 vote.
Whether the visit provides a meaningful boost with left-leaning voters, or becomes fodder for opposition criticism about prioritizing international appearances during a tight domestic race, will likely become clearer as both Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro enter the campaign’s final stretch.
