President Jair Bolsonaro said on Monday (30) that US President Joe Biden has “almost an obsession with the environmental issue” and that this “has bothered” the Brazilian government a little.
The statements were made during an interview with a radio station in Goiás.
“For me, Brazil has its doors open and ready to continue the conversation with the US government. Obviously, the Biden government is a more left-wing government. A government that is almost obsessed with the environmental issue, so it comes in. in the way a bit us, ”the president said.
“Brazil is the country that preserves its environment the most. We are always under attack from European countries. There, they don’t know what the riparian forest is because they don’t have one. with this question “.
Bolsonaro is under strong international pressure because of his rhetoric for a policy of deregulation of preservation standards and, mainly, for the advance of deforestation in the Amazon.
After two years of criticism coming mainly from Europe, the situation changed with the arrival of Biden to the White House. Thus, the United States joined the European countries and also began to demand commitments and results from Brazil in this area.
The Bolsonaro government even made a gesture in April, during the climate summit led by the US president. At the time, the Brazilian president pledged to end illegal deforestation by 2030 and achieve climate neutrality by 2050.
But the difficulties in presenting results in the fight against environmental crimes remain the main obstacle in the relationship between the two countries on environmental issues.
In Monday’s interview, Bolsonaro declared himself “an admirer of the American people”.
Without naming former President Donald Trump by name, he said he had rooted for the Republican’s re-election.
“I am an admirer of the American people. I rooted for a president [Trump] as a citizen, I logically cannot interfere in the elections of another country. We received representatives of the US government in Brazil, they were concerned about the growth of the left in Brazil and in the world, “he said.
“Brazil is always ready to talk to other countries. The United States is a very important country. Before I took office here, previous governments, with the exception of the [do ex-presidente Michel Temer], had no sympathy for the US government. So this dialogue was not good. It’s good for me. We know and keep in touch with the American government about the problems that exist in Latin America; that there is an interest on the part of the United States in increasingly seeking to preserve or maintain democracy in these countries. “