Emmanuel Macron and Jair Bolsonaro will probably no longer be friends in this life. The days-long dispute between the presidents of Brazil and France escalated on Monday. Bolsonaro caused indignation with the approval of a sexist Facebook post about French President Brigitte Macron.
Emmanuel Macron condemned Bolsonaro's behavior as "exceedingly disrespectful" and hinted at his hope for an early end to his term. The Brazilian replied that he could not accept the "attacks" of Macron.
Bolsonaro adopted a Facebook post in which a user of the online service had pulled over the exterior of Brigitte Macron. The user had put a disadvantageous shot of the 66-year-old next to a picture of the 37-year-old wife Bolsonaros. He wrote: "Do you now understand why Macron harasses Bolsonaro?" He bet Macron is jealous of Bolsonaro.
Jacques Witt / AFP
Macron and Bolsonaro (late June 2019): "This is sad first for him and the Brazilians"
Brazil's president put an amused comment under the post. "Do not humiliate the guy, haha," he wrote. At the request of the news agency AFP, whether the comment was made by Bolsonaro itself, a spokesman did not comment. Bolsonaro had already made several sexist remarks in the past.
Hope for a new head of state - with manners
Macron attacked him now on the sidelines of the G7 summit because of his current derailment sharply. "What can I tell you, that's sad, that's sad, but that's saddening first for him and the Brazilians." The Brazilians are a "great people" who are probably ashamed of their president, Macron said. He hopes that the Brazilians "very quickly" would get a head of state, "who behaves appropriately".
Shortly after these comments Bolsonaro reported in the short message service Twitter to speak. "We can not accept that a president, Macron, drives inappropriate and unjustified attacks on the Amazon," the president wrote. Macron treated the area like a colony, Bolsonaro repeated a charge on Thursday.
Apart from Bolsonaro, other Brazilian government officials also resorted to personal attacks on Macron. Minister of Education Abraham Weintraub moved on Twitter via Macron. This was not "at the height" in the forest fires in the Amazon. "He's just an opportunistic fool looking for the support of the French agrarian lobby."
Again and again violent attacks from Brazil
Macron had announced because Bolsonaro's environmental policy, a blockade of the free trade agreement with the South American economic block Mercosur. Already on Friday, the son of the Brazilian head of state, Eduardo Bolsonaro, had shared on Twitter a video of the yellow-vein protests in France with the comment: "Macron is an idiot."
The ultra-right-wing Brazilian leader had previously forbidden any foreign interference in view of the fires. The fact that Macron wanted to talk about the forest fires at the G7 summit in the absence of the countries of the Amazon region reveals a "colonialist mentality".
Thousands of forest fires are currently burning in the ecologically sensitive Amazon region, especially Brazil. The G7 states said on Monday about 20 million euros in emergency aid, which will be used to finance airplanes.