Bolsonaro’s approval plummets to 29 per cent amid Amazon fires outrage
Jair Bolsonaro’s approval plummets to 29 per cent amid outrage over Amazon fires as he rejects G7 offer of $22m and accuses the West of treating Brazil ‘like a colony’
- Jair Bolsonaro’s approval rating had been 39 per cent but has plummeted to 29
- It comes as he was involved in a furious war of words with Emmanuel Macron
- Bolsonaro also rejected G7 offer of $22m to help fight fires raging in the Amazon
- He claimed the offer was the West’s way of treating Brazil like it was ‘a colony’
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s approval rating has plunged to 29.4 per cent today after he rejected a $22 million offer of help from the G7 to fight the fires raging through the Amazon.
His approval rating had been up at 39 per cent in February before it’s dramatic fall in the poll conducted between August 22 and August 25 and released today.
The poll also saw Bolsonaro’s personal disapproval rating surge to 53.7 per cent from 28.2 per cent.
Earlier, Bolsonaro slammed a G7 agreement on fighting the Amazon fires, saying that it would treat Brazil ‘like a colony’.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s had been up at 39 per cent in February before it’s dramatic fall to 29.4 per cent in the poll conducted between August 22 and August 25 and released today
The response came in a tweet on Monday morning after French President Emmanuel Macron announced that the G7 had agreed on a $22 million firefighting fund as well as a long-term initiative to protect the rainforest.
At the same time, Macron savaged the Brazilian president for ‘extraordinarily disrespectful comments’ about his wife and reiterated that Bolsonaro had lied about commitments to deforestation.
Bolsonaro, in turn, said Macron’s ‘ludicrous and unnecessary attacks on the Amazon’ were unacceptable and accused him of treating the region ‘as if we were a colony.’
He said: ‘We cannot accept that a president, Macron, unleashes unreasonable and unreasonable attacks on the Amazon, nor disguises his intentions behind the idea of an ‘alliance’ of the G-7 countries to ‘save’ the Amazon, as if we were a colony or a no man’s land.
‘Other heads of state sympathized with Brazil, after all respect for the sovereignty of any country is the least that can be expected in a civilized world.’
French President Emmanuel Macron announced that the G7 had agreed on a $22 million firefighting fund as well as a long-term initiative to protect the rainforest – an agreement slammed by Bolsonaro
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 Bolsonaro, who has made no secret of his skepticism about climate change.
Brazil was angered after Macron, in the run up to the G7 summit, tweeted a photo of the burning Amazon forest, writing: ‘Our house is burning. Literally.’
Macron said he had been lied to by Bolsonaro over his commitments to fighting climate change.
Today 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.
Macron said he had been lied to by Bolsonaro over his commitments to fighting climate change
A Bolsonaro supporter yesterday posted this meme mocking Brigitte Macron, 66, and comparing her unfavourably with Brazil’s first lady 37-year-old Michelle Bolsonaro. It says: ‘Now you understand why Macron is persecuting Bolsonaro?’ The far-right Brazilian leader replied: ‘Do not humiliate the guy, ha ha,’ referring to Mr Macron
Macron 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.
The back and forth deteriorated over the weekend when Bolsonaro endorsed a Facebook post insulting Macron’s wife, Brigitte.
Macron also accused him of missing a scheduled meeting with the French foreign minister in favor of a barber appointment and reiterated that Bolsonaro had lied to him.
Macron said: ‘It’s sad. First for him and for the Brazilians.
‘I think that Brazilians, who are a great people, will probably be ashamed to see this behaviour.’
The French President (pictured with wife Brigitte at the G7 in Biarritz, France on Saturday) 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’
Bolsonaro, pictured with his wife, has shared or made several controversial posts on social media in recent weeks including retweeted a video showing violent yellow-vest protests in France headlined ‘Macron is an idiot’, calling it ‘a message’ to the French leader, on Friday
He said Brazilian women ‘are doubtless ashamed to read that about their president’ and that he hoped the country would soon have a president who could behave according to the standards of the office.
G-7 countries agreed to an immediate $20 million fund to help Amazon countries fight wildfires and launch a long-term global initiative to protect the rainforest.
The announcement came from Macron, the host of this year’s meeting of G7 leaders, and the Chilean President Sebastian Pinera.
Macron said that the Amazon represents the ‘lungs’ of the planet and that leaders were studying the possibility of similar support in Africa, also suffering from fires in its rainforests.
The fires (pictured yesterday) across the world’s largest rainforest, which experts have blamed on rampant deforestation, have triggered a global outcry
Trees are destroyed after a fire in the Alvorada da Amazonia region in Novo Progresso, Para state, on Sunday. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has rallied anger at home and criticism from abroad in his response to the fires raging in the Amazon
An area smolders in the Alvorada da Amazonia region in Novo Progresso, Para state, Brazil, Sunday, on Sunday. The far-right populist leader initially dismissed the hundreds of blazes and then questioned whether activist groups might have started the fires in an effort to damage the credibility of his government, which has called for looser environmental regulations in the world’s largest rainforest to spur development
Macron said the U.S. supported the initiative, although he acknowledged that U.S. President Donald Trump had skipped Monday’s working session on the environment.
Satellites have recorded more than 41,000 fires in the Amazon region so far this year – with more than half of those coming this month alone. Experts say most of the fires are set by farmers or ranchers clearing existing farmland.
Macron also said he is considering launching an international campaign to help sub-Saharan African countries fight fires raging in the area that are being compared to the Amazon rainforest fires.
He tweeted from the Group of Seven summit Monday that ‘the forest is also burning in sub-Saharan Africa. We are studying the possibility of launching an initiative similar to what we just announced for the Amazon.’
Macron said earlier Monday that G-7 nations are committing $20 million to countries in the Amazon region to help fight the fires and help with ‘re-forestation.’
Environmental groups have expressed concern about massive fires in African countries including Angola and Congo that are getting less attention than those in the Amazon, which have caused worldwide concern because of their potential impact on climate change.
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