The Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro arrived in London last Saturday 17th September 2022 to embark on a four-day trip to pay his respects to the late Queen Elizabeth II accompanied by the evangelical pastor Silas Malafaia. The extreme right-wing leader and former army captain has been accused of using his visit to bring his election campaign to the road before it goes to the ballot boxes on 2nd October.
Speaking from the balcony of the Brazilian ambassador’s residence in Mayfair, Bolsonaro affirmed that the “principal objective” of his visit was to express his condolences to the royal family and the British public. He then swiftly turned the subject towards his own election campaign and his right-wing views. “Our flag will always be in these colours- green and yellow’, the President declared, ‘our motto is God, nation, family, and freedom”.
Brazil’s bombastic President proceeded to spew his conservative agenda: “We are a country that does not want to discuss the legalisation of drugs, that does not want to discuss the legalisation of abortion, and a country that does not accept gender ideology. Our slogan is: God, homeland, family and freedom.” Bolsonaro bragged about how he was set to win the 2nd October elections, stating that ‘there is no way we aren’t going to win in the first round’.
The polls, however, widely predict that Bolsonaro is poised to lose the elections to his political opponent and former president (2003-2010) Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva from the Workers’ Party (PT). Recent poll data released by AS/COA online forecasts that Lula will win the presidential election with 41% of the votes; while the runner-up Bolsonaro will take home just 37%.
Bolsonaro’s speech bewitched between one and two hundred die-hard political supporters who flocked to central London dressed in yellow and green to hear the President speak. Bolsonaro recorded the speech which he then posted on social media, opening the gates to staunch criticism. British people and Brazilians alike have condemned Bolsonaro and his supporters’ election chants as disrespectful and insensitive during a sombre time of national mourning across the British Isles. The Guardian journalist Jonathan Watts tweeted that ‘insensitive, shallow, boorish Bolsonaro is trying to use the Queen’s funeral as an election campaign stop. What a shameful representative of Brazil.’ Likewise, Brazilian right-wing politician and former Bolsonaro supporter, Joice Hasselmann, criticised the president for turning ‘the Queen’s funeral into a soap opera’.
As Bolsonaro declared his condolences to the royal family, below the balcony stood the friends and family of British journalist Dom Phillips who was killed in the Brazilian Amazon in June along with Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira. They denounced Bolsonaro’s unwelcome presence on British soil accompanied by environmental activists and the protest group Brazil Matters. Protesters clasping anti-Bolsonaro banners had to be protected by the police after receiving an aggressive earbashing from Bolsonaro supporters. On Monday, the words of sixty-one-year-old Chris Harvey went viral as he demanded Bolsonaro supporters show respect on the day of the Queen’s funeral while passing the Brazilian embassy.
The scuffle began when an anti-Bolsonaro protester waving a Brazilian flag demanded if anyone present ‘was not worried about’ the burning down of the Amazon as well as ‘who assassinated the former city councillor’ of Rio de Janeiro Marielle Franco and ‘where did the money come from that paid for the Bolsonaro family’s properties’. The Bolsonaro supporters surrounded the man, accusing him of supporting the leftist Workers’ Party (PT). Harvey stepped in to defend the man’s right to protest on British soil while criticising the Bolsonaro supporters: ‘This is the Queen’s funeral. Show more respect!’. Around 20 police officers then took charge to protect the anti-Bolsonaro protester.
Bolsonaro’s trip to London has everything to do with domestic politics in Brazil and almost nothing to do with the United Kingdom’s diplomatic policies, according to the Brazilian newspaper O Globo. One presidential aid reported to O Globo that Bolsonaro was using the funeral as an opportunity to get one up on his Lula by hobnobbing with world leaders. On Sunday, Bolsonaro visited the coffin of the late Queen Elizabeth II at Westminster Hall with First Lady Michelle Bolsonaro and evangelical pastor Silas Malafaia. He signed the condolences book before attending a reception hosted by the now King Charles III- the Queen’s son- at Buckingham Palace. Bolsonaro later attended the Queen’s funeral on Monday alongside world leaders including all six living former UK prime ministers, President of the United States Joe Biden, Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau, and President of France Emmanuel Macron.
The Queen’s funeral marks Bolsonaro’s debut UK visit, nearing the final days of his mandate. In contrast, former Brazilian presidents held closer economic ties to the United Kingdom, especially Fernando Henrique Cardoso (1995-2003) and Lula (2003-2010). Bolsonaro has faced fervent criticism from world leaders- especially in western Europe- for allowing the destruction of the Amazon. Over the last four decades, the Brazilian Amazon has lost over 18% of its rainforest- an area the size of California- according to Green Peace. Though protected areas were established during recent years, deforestation has surged under Bolsonaro’s anti-environmental policies which favour large agribusiness and loggers over the Indigenous communities and diverse flora and fauna in the Amazon. When Bolsonaro first met the now King of England, Charles III, during his 2019 trip to Japan, he described the monarch- a staunch environmentalist- as ‘a person who, like the rest of the world, is wrong about the Amazon’. It will soon become clear whether the president’s trip to London was enough to sway undecided voters or the final nail in the coffin for Bolsonaro.
