BARCELONA — Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva began a two-day visit to Spain on April 17, 2026, meeting with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and cabinet ministers at a former royal palace in Barcelona. The leaders are expected to sign agreements on their economies, technology and social policies.

On the following day, Lula and Sánchez will confer with other leaders at two events in a Barcelona conference center. The first gathering on Saturday is the IV Meeting in Defense of Democracy, which Brazil and Spain launched as a forum in 2024 to exchange ideas to combat extremism, polarization and misinformation that undermine participatory democracy.

The first two editions of the Meeting in Defense of Democracy were held at the United Nations, and the third edition was held in Santiago, Chile, in 2025. Leaders participating in the Barcelona edition include European Council President Antonio Costa, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Colombian President Gustavo Petro, along with leaders from Uruguay, Lithuania, Ghana and Albania.

"This is not going to going to be an anti-Trump meeting," Lula said ahead of the gatherings. "We are going to discuss the state of democracy, to see what went wrong and what we have to do to repair it."

Lula and Sánchez, both identified with progressive or liberal politics on their respective continents, have criticized U.S. President Donald Trump, who has threatened to impose punitive tariffs on them. The two leaders have also spoken out against Trump's decision to attack Iran in coordination with Israel.

Leaders from the IV Meeting in Defense of Democracy will attend the inaugural Global Progressive Mobilization at the same venue later on Saturday, where Sánchez and Lula will give speeches. The event is expected to have 3,000 attendees, including U.S. Senator Chris Murphy, and will feature round tables on wage inequality and improving progressive election results. Sánchez and Stefan Löfven, President of the Party of European Socialists, discussed the idea of the Global Progressive Mobilization at a meeting of European Socialists in 2025.

"Lula, Sánchez and other leaders at the events share the understanding that the world is not just for the great powers," said Pol Morillas, Director of CIDOB. He said the gatherings are intended as a show of force by democratic leaders reacting to the populist far-right's use of international gatherings to promote anti-migration and economic nationalism messages.