Brazil’s President will reject $22 million worth of aid offered by the G7 members to help fight fires in the Amazon. Jair Bolsonaro said his country is able to do that by itself and accused France and other European nations of treating Brazil like a colony, hinting at French Guiana, an overseas department of France, borders northern Brazil.
Mr Bolsonaro’s chief of staff Onyx Lorenzoni said that France couldn’t even prevent a fire in Notre Dame cathedral, so, G7 financial support will be definitely rejected by Brazil. On Sunday, the aid package, the bulk of which was for firefighting planes, was agreed at the conclusion of the G7 summit in Biarritz, France.
According to the Brazilian side, $22 million international aid package would be “put to better use reforesting Europe.” The scale of 2019 fires in Amazon is really impressive and scaring, Brazil’s space agency INPE confirmed. More than 80,000 fires have broken out in the Amazon rainforest, this represents an 80% increase this year.
Jair Bolsonaro demands from France respect for Brazil’s sovereignty
Emmanuel Macron, the host of the G7 summit of the world’s largest advanced economies, said the Amazon fires were an international crisis, but Jair Bolsonaro has accused France and other European nations of treating Brazil like a colony.
Writing on Twitter on Monday, he said that “respect for the sovereignty of any country is the least that can be expected in a civilized world.”
“Macron can’t even prevent a foreseeable fire in a church that is a world heritage site,” President Bolsonaro’s chief of staff Onyx Lorenzoni said.
“What does he want to teach our country? He has plenty to take care of at home and in the French colonies,” he added.
Relations between Brazil and France’s leaders are extremely poor at the moment. This weekend the Brazilian president’s official Facebook page appeared to endorse a meme mocking Macron’s wife, Brigitte.
Macron responded by saying the “incredibly disrespectful comments” were “sad first of all for [Bolsonaro] and the Brazilian people.”
