Jair Bolsonaro’s comments sparked an immediate outcry from critics.
Braslia:
President Jair Bolsonaro was criticized on Tuesday for telling Brazilians not to treat Covid-19 as “a country of queers,” the far-right leader’s latest controversial explosion on the pandemic.
Bolsonaro, who has consistently downplayed the virus even as he killed 163,000 people in Brazil – the second highest death toll in the world, after the United States – made the comment during a winding speech at the Presidential Palace in which he also appeared. threaten US President-elect Joe Biden.
“All we’re talking about these days is the pandemic. We have to stop this,” Bolsonaro said during the speech, which pointedly focused on tourism.
“I regret the dead. I really do. But we’ll all die one day. There’s no point in running away from reality. We have to stop being a country of queers … We have to face it and fight back. . I hate that queer thing. “
It was the latest in a long list of controversial statements about the Bolsonaro pandemic, which condemned the “hysteria” around Covid-19, compared the new coronavirus to a “little flu” and claimed that the immune system of Brazilians was so strong that he could swim in the sewage and “not catch anything”.
The president also sparked controversy with a veiled blow to Biden, which angered Bolsonaro by urging his administration to better protect the Amazon rainforest.
Bolsonaro, a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump, is among the few world leaders who did not congratulate Biden on his electoral victory, which Trump did not accept.
“Recently, a top presidential candidate said if I didn’t put out the Amazon forest fires he would impose trade sanctions on Brazil,” Bolsonaro said, apparently referring to a comment Biden made during his first debate with Trump in September.
“How do you deal with this stuff? Diplomacy alone doesn’t work… You must have gunpowder. You don’t have to use it. But they must know you have it.”
His comments sparked an immediate outcry from critics.
“Between ‘gunpowder’ and ‘queers’, we have more than 160,000 dead in the country,” tweeted the president of the lower house of Congress, Rodrigo Maia.
“Our solidarity with all the friends and family of the victims of Covid-19”.
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
