FIRE & FURY
Macron blasts ‘sad’ Brazilian president as ‘not up to the job’ after Bolsonaro shared sexist Facebook post about French leader’s wife who criticised Amazon wildfires
MACRON has blasted Bolsonaro for appearing to support a sexist Facebook post about his wife, calling the Brazilian leader as "not up to the job" as tensions over the Amazon fires escalate.
The French President described his Brazilian counterpart as "extremely disrespectful" and "sad" for seemingly mocking the French first lady's looks.
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The row broke out after a Bolsonaro supporter posted a meme mocking the appearance of Brigitte Macron.
Two photos of the couples' were posted side-by-side next to the caption: "Now you understand why Macron is persecuting Bolsonaro?"
The person who made the post opted to use a glowing photo of Bolsonaro and his third wife Michelle and not-so-favourable snap of Macron and Brigitte.
The Brazilian leader replied: "Do not humiliate the guy haha," in an obvious reference to Macron.
A spokesman for Brazil's presidential palace has since refused to comment and confirm whether the response came from Bolsonaro himself.
At a press conference at the G7 meeting in Biarritz today, Macron hit back.
"He has made some extraordinarily rude comments about my wife,"; the AFP reported him as saying.
“What can I say? It’s sad. It’s sad for him firstly, and for Brazilians.
“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.”
WAR OF WORDS
Ties between Brazil and France have recently fractured after Macron has publicly criticised Bolsonaro's response to the Amazon forest fires.
Macron called the wildfires an international crisis and said the leaders of the Group of 7 nations should hold urgent discussions about them at their summit in France this weekend.
"Our house is burning. Literally. The Amazon rain forest the lungs which produces 20% of our planet's oxygen is on fire," he tweeted.
However, Bolsonaro's response has been to a different tune - publicly accusing non-profit organisations for deliberately starting the fires over "budget cuts".
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Earlier this month, he fired the head scientist at the National Institute for Space Research for sharing satellite photos that showed the huge increase in fires.
Data showed there has been an 84 per cent increase in deforestation from the same period in 2018.
Bolsonaro said the satellite data was a lie.
Last month, the Brazilian leader cancelled his meeting with French diplomat Jean-Yves Le Drian to get a haircut instead, which he then broadcast live on Facebook.
Macron also threatened to block a EU trade deal with Brazil on the back of the blazes.
"First we need to help Brazil and other countries put out these fires," he said at the weekend.
The goal is to "preserve this forest that we all need because it is a treasure of our biodiversity and our climate thanks to the oxygen that it emits and thanks to the carbon it absorbs," he said.
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NASA releases disturbing photos of Amazon fire captured from space
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