Mônica Bergamo: Malafaia says she entered the queen’s funeral in the vacancy of Eduardo Bolsonaro

Pastor Silas Malafaia says he was moved and impressed at the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II.

On Friday (18), he visited the sovereign’s coffin alongside President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) and First Lady Michelle Bolsonaro.

“The organization, millimetrically [planejada], it’s an amazing thing, you know? For each delegation there is a fixed time [de comparecer ao funeral]time to arrive, the time that stays [ao lado do caixão], the time that leaves. This is a monumental deal,” he says.

The religious also says that he can’t “not get emotional” at the ceremony, “even though he’s not English”.

“This woman’s life [a rainha Elizabeth 2ª] it was extraordinary, of overcoming, of coping with family and global crises. She spent 70 years on the throne with the approval of the majority of the population. What I most admired was the reverence and respect of the people for her, a monster business. This woman managed to transcend anything you can imagine,” he says.

The presence of the pastor in the official entourage was the target of criticism, since he does not have a position in the government or was on an official mission.

He says he cannot say why Bolsonaro decided to take him to the funeral. “I confess I didn’t ask,” he says. “But there was a priest here too [o padre Paulo Antônio de Araújo]. Funeral is about eternity. I think that’s why the president brought us. The Anglican church service is crazy business,” he says.

Called a “counselor” by Bolsonaro, Malafaia says that the president could take, in addition to the first lady, two more people with him to the ceremony: a diplomat and a guest.

The natural thing would be for federal deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro (PL-SP), son of the president, to go with him at the ceremony. But the parliamentarian “declined”, according to Mafalaia.

“The president was then consulted and said: ‘Is there another vacancy? Then put Malafaia’. It was the president who chose”, says the religious.

_{with BIANKA VIEIRA, KARINA MATIAS and MANOELLA SMITH}