Ariquemes (Brazil) (AFP)
"Europe has no lesson to give" in Brazil, said Friday President Jair Bolsonaro about the Amazon where the number of fires has increased significantly the day before despite the entry into force of the ban on burns.
At the same time, the head of diplomacy Ernesto Araujo and Eduardo Bolsonaro, son of the president and deputy, were expected at the White House for an interview with "senior officials of the administration," said an official in Washington, without confirming the meeting with President Donald Trump announced the day before by Jair Bolsonaro.
On the ground, forest fires experienced a significant increase in 24 hours on Thursday, when a temporary ban on burning imposed by Jair Bolsonaro took effect. The army has deployed since last weekend 18 aircraft and 3,900 men to fight against flames in the Amazon.
Some 2,300 new fires have been recorded in Brazil by the National Institute for Space Research (INPE), including nearly 1,500 in the nine states of the Amazon.
The total number of fires recorded in the country since January is over 87,000, the highest since 2010, when more than 132,000 were recorded over the same period.
Para was the most affected state with 587 new fires in 24 hours (+ 67%). In the Rondônia, where the army concentrated its efforts, 67 new homes were raised, three times more than the day before.
It is "not true" that the Amazon rainforest is "on fire," said Bolsonaro on Facebook live Thursday night, while ensuring that "the fires this year are below average in recent years."
He accused the Brazilian press of "feeding" international concern about it.
- "return to normality" -
Friday, he attacked Europe.
He said Europe has "no lessons to give" in Brazil on the environment, while it has been under heavy pressure for more than a week.
Bolsonaro told reporters in Brasilia that he needs to talk on the phone with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. He added that he had felt at home a desire to "return to normalcy" after tense exchanges when Germany suspended at the beginning of August part of its subsidies for the preservation of the Amazon.
Jair Bolsonaro had in particular advised the Chancellor to "reforest Germany".
He replied to the journalist who was questioning him about his latest words: "she (Mrs. Merkel) does not want to have a romantic relationship with me, and you want to complicate things." It's not just Germany, but all Europe that has no lesson to give us on the environment ".
The Brazilian president added that he is "ready to speak with one country or another, except (with) our dear Macron, as long as he does not retract on the sovereignty (of Brazil) on the Amazon".
Jair Bolsonaro asked for three days that the French president, who had felt that the issue of sovereignty over the Amazon was open, withdraws his "insults". Brazil is home to 60% of the Amazon rainforest.
He did not accept $ 20 million of G7 aid to the Amazon demanding, as a precondition for any discussion, a retraction from Mr. Macron. He also accused Germany and France of "being buying Brazilian sovereignty" with this help.
- "A person of dialogue" -
On the visit of his son and the White House diplomat he announced, he said: "I asked (Donald) Trump for help.
The US president congratulated him on Tuesday, saying he "worked very hard" in the fight against fires in the Amazon, taking the complete opposite of the other members of the G7. He had expressed the "unqualified support" of the United States in Brazil.
"Trump said he can not make a decision without listening to us, Brazil is everyone's friend, I am a dialogue person," said the far-right president, who with various countries on the Amazon and the preservation of the environment.
In Ariquemes, an average town 200 km south of Porto Velho in the state of Rondônia, AFP journalists have seen the advance of agriculture and livestock on the forest.
© 2019 AFP