FRENCH PRESIDENT EMMANUEL Macron condemned “extraordinarily rude” comments made about his wife Brigitte by his Brazilian counterpart Jair Bolsonaro.
“He has made some extraordinarily rude comments about my wife,” Macron said at a press conference at the G7 meeting in Biarritz when asked to react to statements about him by the Brazilian government.
“What can I say? It’s sad. It’s sad for him firstly, and for Brazilians,” he added.
Yesterday, a Bolsonaro supporter posted a message on Facebook mocking the appearance of Brigitte Macron and comparing her unfavourably with Brazil’s first lady Michelle Bolsonaro.
“Now you understand why Macron is persecuting Bolsonaro?” he wrote next to an unflattering picture of Brigitte Macron, who is 28 years older than Bolsonaro’s wife, Michelle.
Bolsonaro replied on Facebook: “Do not humiliate the guy, ha ha.”
“I think Brazilian women will probably be ashamed to read that from their president,” Macron said. “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.”
The spat took place as the G7 agreed to spend €20 million on the Amazon, mainly to send fire-fighting aircraft to tackle the huge blazes engulfing the world’s biggest rainforest.
Bolsonaro has authorised the deployment of Brazil’s armed forces to help combat ongoing the fires but his response has been criticised, with Macron among those calling for greater action.
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