Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro had an altercation on Thursday with a Youtuber, who challenged and insulted him, trying to grab his phone while he was filming the scene, before engaging in a conversation with him.
News site G1 released video of the incident, tagging the YouTuber as Wilker Leao, followed by 127,000 people on TikTok and who describes himself as a lawyer, army corporal, addicted to politics.
Tense exchange
We see Wilker Leao approaching President Bolsonaro who was greeting his supporters who wanted to take a selfie with him outside the Alvorada Palace in Brasilia and ask him in particular, while filming himself, why he had entered into an alliance with a nebula of parties that trade their support for advantages, the Centrao.
An unidentified person first pushed him aside and threw him to the ground.
The latter got up, approached again, treating the president - who in the meantime had gotten into his car - as a
"coward"
, a
"tramp"
and a
"whore of Centrao".
Jair Bolsonaro then got out of the car and approached the man and tried to grab his phone.
"Come here, I want to talk to you
," said the president, grabbing Wilker Leao by the arm and the collar of the football shirt he was wearing.
The presidential security service then promptly intervened and put the Youtuber away.
Several minutes later, Jair Bolsonaro struck up a conversation with him, the two men being separated by a line of bodyguards.
"I have to get things through Parliament, don't I?"
, we hear the president say before returning to his car and leaving.
Neither Wilker Leao nor the president's services immediately responded to AFP's requests.
Jair Bolsonaro, a 67-year-old ex-army captain, is a candidate for re-election in October against former left-wing president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (2003-2010).
Wilker Leao, who regularly posts videos where he asks provocative questions to supporters of different political parties, describes Lula's Workers' Party (PT) as
"creepy".