Jair Bolsonaro, according to a former minister might be Brazil's most detested leader as he ignores the plight of the Amazon forest. The President rejected $18 mn aid from G7 countries to fight the wildfires at Amazon.
In recent developments around Jair Bolsonaro rejecting G7 aid to save the Amazon, the president had endorsed a sexist post on Facebook that insulted Macron's 66-year-old wife. The post had pictures of both the couples side-by-side and read: “Now you understand why Macron is persecuting Bolsonaro?”
The Brazilian leader responded: “Do not humiliate the guy, haha,” referring to Mr Macron.
The French Prime Minister hit back today, he said, “He said very disrespectful things about my wife, I have great respect for the Brazilian people and can only hope they soon have a president who is up to the job.”
Brazil on Monday rejected aid from G7 countries to fight wildfires in the Amazon, with a top official telling French President Emmanuel Macron to take care of "his home and his colonies." Bolsonaro said that the west is treating Brazil like a 'colony' when French President Emmanuel Macron tried launching an aid plan at the G7 summit.
Nearly 80,000 forest fires have broken out in Brazil since the beginning of the year -- just over half of them in the massive Amazon basin that regulates part of Earth's carbon cycle and climate.
G7 countries offered $20 million in aid to fight the blazes and insisted it should be discussed as a top priority.
"We appreciate (the offer), but maybe those resources are more relevant to reforest Europe," Onyx Lorenzoni, chief of staff to President Jair Bolsonaro, told the G1 news website.
"Macron cannot even avoid a foreseeable fire in a church that is a world heritage site," he added, referring to the fire in April that devastated the Notre-Dame cathedral.
The French president has threatened to block a huge new trade deal between the European Union and Latin America unless his Brazilian counterpart takes serious steps to protect the fast-shrinking forest from logging and mining. Bolsonaro reacted by blasting Macron for having a "colonialist mentality."
Bolsonaro, deputed the armed forces yesterday to flight the blaze that has been raising a massive uproar on the internet. As per data, even as military aircraft dumped water on its hard it areas, new fires have erupted in the Brazilian part of the forest. Though the vast forest is spread over parts of eight countries including Bolivia and Colombia, 60 per cent of the Amazon is in Brazil.
A climate-change sceptic, Bolsonaro has faced criticism over his delayed response to the fires at and thousands have taken to the streets in Brazil to denounce the destruction.
“Never, in more than 50 years of our history, has there been a disaster involving Brazil’s image and the perception of Brazil so serious and probably so irremediable as this one,” said Rubens Ricupero, Brazil's former finance minister and former Brazilian ambassador to the US.
