Furious Emmanuel Macron blasts Brazil’s president after Jair Bolsonaro insults the French leader’s wife Brigitte and appears to mock her looks as Amazon forest fires feud gets personal
Emmanuel Macron has blasted ‘extraordinarily rude’ Brazil leader Jair Bolsonaro for insulting his wife and appearing to criticise her looks as their feud over the Amazon fires got personal yesterday. Mr Bolsonaro endorsed a sexist Facebook post about France’s 66-year-old first lady Brigitte Macron, the latest chapter in an escalating war of words between him and his French counterpart.
French President Macron, 41, had called for emergency talks by G7 nations on the fires destroying chunks of the Amazon rainforest, piling pressure on Bolsonaro, who in turn accused him of having a ‘colonialist mentality’. A Bolsonaro supporter yesterday posted a meme mocking the appearance of Mrs Macron and compared her unfavourably with Brazil’s 37-year-old first lady Michelle Bolsonaro. It had the tagline: “Now you understand why Macron is persecuting Bolsonaro?”
The right wing Brazilian leader, 64, replied: “Do not humiliate the guy, ha ha,” referring to Mr Macron.
When asked about the post at the G7 summit in Biarritz, France, Mr Macron said that “Brazilian women are probably feeling ashamed of their president.”
The dispute comes as Mr Macron announced the G7 counties would release 20 million euros (US$22m) to help fight the raging fires in the Amazon. Asked whether the response on social media came from Mr Bolsonaro himself, a spokesman for Brazil’s presidential palace refused to comment. But the French President hit back, saying: “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.”
He said Mr Bolsonaro’s comments were ‘extraordinarily rude’, adding: “What can I say? It’s sad. It’s sad for him firstly, and for Brazilians.”
Mr Macron added: “I think Brazilian women
will probably be ashamed to read that from their president. I think that Brazilians, who are a great people, will probably be ashamed to see this behaviour. And as I feel friendship and respect towards the Brazilian people, I hope that they will very soon have a president who behaves in the right way.”
President Bolsonaro later hit back at the French leader with a thread of tweets and said Mr Macron’s ‘improper and wanton attacks on the Amazon’ were ‘unreasonable.’
He also said: “Other heads of state sympathised with Brazil, after all respect for the sovereignty of any country is the least that can be expected in a civilised world.”
The fires across the world’s largest rainforest, which experts have blamed on rampant deforestation, have triggered a global outcry. European nations have lead the charge against Mr Bolsonaro, who has made no secret of his skepticism about climate change. Brazil was angered after Mr Macron, in the run up to the G7 summit, tweeted a photo of the burning Amazon forest, writing: “Our house is burning. Literally.”
Mr Macron said he had been lied to by Bolsonaro over his commitments to fighting climate change.
Yesterday, Mr Macron said the G7 countries would release 20 million euros to help support efforts to tackle the fires.
Mr Macron said the funds would be available ‘immediately’ to be used mainly for paying for more fire-fighting planes. He had already declared the situation in the Amazon region an ‘international crisis’ and made it one of the summit’s priorities this past weekend. He also threatened to block a new trade deal between the EU and Latin America unless Bolsonaro takes serious steps to protect the forest from logging and mining.
“We must respond to the call of the forest which is burning today in the Amazon,” Mr Macron said.