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by IANS |
Brasilia, Jan 3 (IANS) Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has poked at his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron and Swedish environment activist Greta Thunberg over the destructive bushfires raging in Australia.
During his first live broadcast of 2020 on social media, Bolsonaro on Thursday asked: "Mr (Emmanuel) Macron, what are you going to say about Australia? And Greta, that brat?" Efe news reported.
Bolsonaro also asked if his French counterpart had already spoken out about the bushfires in Australia and if Emmanuel had questioned the sovereignty of that nation, as he did with Brazil last year.
"Now there are fires going on in Australia, I don't know if Macron said anything. Did he question the sovereignty of Australia? Did that girl (Thunberg) say something too?" asked the Brazilian head of state, who completed his first year in office on Wednesday.
The two Presidents sparred last year over the fires that spread through the largest rainforest on the planet.
In an interview with French public broadcaster France 2 in August, Macron accused Bolsonaro of supporting economic projects harmful to the Amazon and warned the Brazilian president that "we cannot allow you to destroy everything".
Macron then left the signing of he trade agreement between the European Union (EU) and Mercosur (Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay).
During his broadcast on Thursday, Bolsonaro also offered his help to Australia to battle the fires that have already killed 19 people across the country and destroyed more than 1,300 homes.
"We have little to offer Australia.. and what we have to offer is being made ready to fight the fires," he said.
