President Jair Bolsonaro called the reception of former Brazilian leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva at the Eliseu Palace a provocation on Thursday (25) and said that the PT member and French president Emmanuel Macron “speak the same language”.
On a trip to Europe, Lula was received in Paris with honors and the presence of the republican guard, which attracted attention. Under Bolsonaro, the government has troubled relations with Macron’s France.
The French leader is disaffected by the Brazilian president and is critical of the environmental policy led by Planalto.
“Macron was always against us, and he always hit us on the Amazon issue. As if he had preserved something, he and his predecessors had preserved something in France. It seems a provocation, yes,” said Bolsonaro, in interview with Sociedade da Bahia radio this morning.
“France is not an example for us, much less your Macron. Your Macron is very well accompanied by Lula, and Lula, very well accompanied by your Macron. They understand each other, speak the same language.”
The president also said that the French leader is interested in having in power in Brazil a “passive, corrupt person, like Lula”. “What happens in Europe, if you don’t defend the environmental issue, you don’t have a renewed order, so you have to always be hitting someone. Unfairly hitting Brazil.”
Bolsonaro cited the fact that France opposed the agreement between the European Union and Mercosur, in 2019. The country claimed environmental issues as an obstacle, but the president credits the interruption of talks to the export of commodities from Brazil.
That year, episodes negatively marked the relationship between the leaders. In July, the president at the last minute canceled an agenda he would maintain with French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian. However, minutes before the meeting, the Frenchman was told by the then chancellor of Brazil, Ernesto Araújo, that Bolsonaro would no longer have available time for the meeting.
A few minutes after the meeting was supposed to end, the president appeared on a live social media outlet getting a haircut. The following month, the president endorsed, on a social network, an offensive comment to the first lady of France, Brigitte Macron.
Commenting on a post by the Brazilian president on his Facebook page, follower Rodrigo Andreaça wrote: “It is envy the president of macron can believe (sic)”.
The message was published alongside an image, which has a photo of Bolsonaro and his wife, Michelle Bolsonaro, below a portrait of Macron and his wife, Brigitte Macron.
Next to the photos of the couples are the words: “Do you understand now why Macron is chasing Bolsonaro?”
Bolsonaro’s profile replied to Andreaça: “Don’t humiliate, man. Kkkkkkk”, implying that Macron’s recent criticisms of the Brazilian president would be motivated by the envy of the Brazilian’s wife.
In Lula’s meeting with Macron, which lasted little more than an hour, they discussed issues related to Brazil, Latin America and the European Union, although the Brazilian currently does not hold any public office.
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