In the dispute over the devastating forest fires in Brazil and the Amazon Fund for aid payments, the Brazilian presidential son Eduardo Bolsonaro has added. "Are we going to accept the Amazon Fund and keep prostituting ourselves for it? This is Brazil, here we are in charge," said the MP. "If they want to keep depositing, they should do that, if not, thank you, we will not cry and do anything to get that money."
The fund is mainly supported by Norway and to a lesser extent also by Germany. He finances projects for environmental protection, reforestation and sustainable development in the Amazon. Due to the controversial environmental policy of Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro, Norway had last stopped payments. Federal Environment Minister Svenja Schulze announced that her home finances would be frozen. The German participation in the Amazonas Fund via the German Development Ministry (BMZ) has not been affected so far.
Bolsonaro had recently made the acceptance of a G7 aid offer conditional. The head of state accuses the rich industrialized countries of disregarding the sovereignty of his country and of having paid attention to the mineral wealth of the region. Even his son Eduardo suspects dishonest motives: "Amazonia, this beautiful woman, meets a guy, he goes to her, winks at her, wants to buy her a drink, I do not think that this drink is completely free, right?"
Bolsonaro prohibits fire-extinguishing on time
Brazil's head of state, Jair Bolsonaro, has come under increasing pressure internationally in the face of forest fires. Critics accuse him of not acting energetically enough against the disaster. The president is close to the agrarian lobby and doubts man-made climate change. Environmentalists blame Bolsonaro for having massively increased fires in the Amazon this year.
Most recently, the right-wing populist had responded to the fires in his country: According to media reports, he has banned firewalking for a period of two months.