• Controversy Bolsonaro makes fun of Brigitte Macron and the French leader replies: "I wish Brazilians to have a president at their height soon"
  • Science: Macron and Bolsonaro collide with the climate and fires of the Amazon
  • Deforestation Bolsonaro shuffles censoring data on deforestation in the Amazon

First it was Germany; then Norway. Now France is the center of the attacks - in public or on social networks - of the Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, and his acolytes. These include his children, such as Eduardo Bolsonaro, aspiring deputy ambassador to the United States, a minister, his guru based in the United States, Olavo de Carvalho, and even the 'bolsominions', as in Brazil they pejoratively call the followers of the former military, which have flooded the networks of insults against the French president, Emmanuel Macron. The background is always the same: the environment.

When Berlin earlier this month suspended financial aid for conservation and biodiversity projects in the Brazilian jungle, and announced that it would review its participation in the Amazon Fund, President Bolsonaro said: "I would like to send a message to dear Angela Merkel : take your pasta and reforest Germany. You need it much more than here. "

Days later, Oslo announced that it was freezing its annual contribution of 30 million euros to that fund as a result of the Brazilian government unilaterally dissolving the agencies that manage this international cooperation mechanism. Created in 2008 to reduce greenhouse gases due to deforestation, economic contributions -Norway (1,200 million euros), Germany (68 million) and the Brazilian state oil company Petrobras (7.7 million) - are conditioned to " verified results of deforestation reduction ".

Then the former military officer tweeted: "Around 40% of the Amazon Fund goes to NGOs, a refuge for many environmentalists. See the whale slaughter sponsored by Norway," attaching a video. It is true that the Scandinavian country, such as Japan or Iceland, does not respect the hunting ban stipulated by the International Whaling Commission, but the images belonged to the Faroe Islands and their dolphin hunting.

"Norway is not that country that kills whales up there in the North Pole? That also exploits oil there? It is not at all an example for us. Save your money and help (Chancellor) Angela Merkel reforest Germany "Bolsonaro said on Facebook Live.

A long awkward relationship

The attacks against President Macron, however, have been more furious and sustained. "The political dynamics in France and Brazil suggest that the relationship will continue to deteriorate. For both presidents, attacking each other is useful and popular among their followers," says Oliver Stuenkel, Professor of International Relations at the Gertúlio Vargas Foundation, in today's edition of 'Folha do Sao Paulo'.

"For Macron, Bolsonaro is a gift from the sky that will provide him with a noble reason to oppose the EU-Mercosur trade agreement he never wanted. To Bolsonaro, the situation helps him strengthen his favorite narrative that Brazil is under siege" , the analyst explained on his Twitter profile.

Even before the former military took office, there was already a diplomatic clash between France and Brazil because of the Paris Agreement. Last December, Filipe G. Martins, Bolsonaro's foreign policy advisor, tweeted: "A very modest suggestion to President Macron: before defending the Paris Agreement, how about defending Paris first? Make an agreement with your own people before criticizing the decisions of the Brazilian government and disrespectfully interfering with our domestic issues. "

The comment was taken by the journalist Alexandre Garcia, to add: "It is surprising to admit that von Choltitz defended Paris more than Macron, even under the threat of being shot by Hitler." Given this, the French consul in Sao Paulo, Brieuc Pont, replied: "The Lord praises a Nazi general comparing him to the president of the French Republic. The delicacy passed by," he tweeted.

This story of disagreements had its peak when last July President Bolsonaro suddenly canceled "due to agenda issues" his meeting with the French Foreign Minister, Jean Yves Le Drian, on an official trip in the region. According to 'Globo', the Brazilian president left the French minister planted at the last minute as a sign of his anger because he had held a meeting with Brazilian NGOs, another usual target of the former military. At the time of the meeting, Bolsonaro uploaded a video to Facebook in which he appeared cutting his hair.

There was no official comment, but days later Le Drian on a French television joked: "Everyone knows the restrictions that come with the agendas of the heads of state. So obviously there was a hair emergency. This is a concern that seems strange to me," he said. .

With these embers the rhetoric burned last week, after President Macron announced on Twitter that "our house is literally burning", referring to the fires of the Amazon.

The comment was not well received in Brazil, even among the detractors of Bolsonaro, such as the American journalist Glenn Greenwald, who noted that "Macron's call for the G-7 nations to take action on the Amazon without the participation of countries of the region smells like arrogant colonialism. " Then he added: "Having said that: Bolsonaro's calls for national sovereignty and the need to exploit the Amazon would be more convincing if they intended to use that for the benefit of the Brazilian people. They will not. They intend to strip it and sell it. to the highest bidder and get rich. "

Rain of insults

But there were simpler and more explicit reactions. Deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro, an aspiring ambassador to Washington and currently at the head of the Foreign Commission of Congress, tweeted a video of yellow vests that read: "Macron is an idiot."

Along the same lines, the ideological guru of the US-based president, Olavo de Carvalho, said: "The French are very unlucky. They could not vote for Le Pen because she is Putin's assistant, owner of the gas. They had to vote for 'Macrocon' and now they don't know how to get rid of him, "joining the last name of the French president with the idiot insult.

Education Minister Abraham Weintraub also explained on Twitter: "France is a nation of extremes. It fathered men like Descartes or Pasteur but also the volunteers of the Waffen SS Charlemagne. Country of Enlightenment and the Communists. Macron no is at the height of this shock. It is just an opportunistic garbage that seeks support from the French agricultural lobby.

To add: "The French chose that Macron. However, we chose Le Thief who is now 'caged'. I iron Macron's cretin, not the French." But even without that appeal, the networks were already burning against the French president, who last Friday was Brazil's first trending topic with the hashtag #Macronlies (Macron lies). Then came the comment about the first French lady, Brigitte Macron, adding even more firewood to the diplomatic fire.

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  • Brazil
  • France
  • Emmanuel Macron
  • Jair Bolsonaro
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  • Angela Merkel
  • Norway

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