Brazilian president CONFIRMS he snubbed French foreign minister for a haircut

A spokesman for Mr Bolsonaro cited an agenda clash, even though the meeting with Jean-Yves Le Drian was cancelled just one hour before. Mr Bolsonaro went for a haircut at the time of the scheduled meeting with Mr Le Drian on Monday, broadcasting it in a 12-minute Facebook live video in which he can be seen fixing his hair. While neither the French foreign ministry nor Mr Bolsonaro’s office immediately returned requests for comment, the conservative leader confirmed the snub on Thursday, saying he had not appreciated the fact Mr Le Drian had set up a separate meeting with environmental NGOs. 

He told reporters in Brasilia: “Why has he come here to meet with local NGOs? As soon as the word ‘NGO’ is mentioned, alarm bells start ringing” before accusing Mr Le Drian of seeking to “harm” Brazil’s national interests.  

He added: “With all due respect, speaking to you is far more important than speaking to him.”

Mr Le Drian, who is currently on a tour of Latin American countries, said on Tuesday that he was bearing a message from French President Emmanuel Macron requesting full implementation of the Paris climate agreement, respect of EU environmental and sanitary rules and protection of “sensitive” agricultural sectors. 

France has expressed serious concern over the impact on its vast agriculture industry from Mercosur imports that would not have to respect the bloc’s strict environmental regulations. 

Mr Bolsonaro, a longtime climate change sceptic, had expected Mr Le Drian to criticise his environmental policies. 

He told reporters on Monday: “Today I will meet with the French minister, if I am not mistaken, to discuss the environment, and he should not look down his nose at me.”

“He will have to understand that the Brazilian government has changed and that subservience we had in the past with other governments does not exist anymore.” 

Since taking office in January, Mr Bolsonaro has fought against the enforcement of environmental regulations in Brazil and announced plans to develop the Amazon region, where deforestation of the world’s biggest rainforest by loggers, ranchers and speculators has spiralled out of control in recent months. 

He has also accused the National Institute for Space Research, Inpe, the state body responsible for tracking deforestation levels, of falsifying data after numbers showed a huge rise in July. 

he said: “I am convinced that the data is a lie, and we will ask the president [of Inpe] to come here and talk about it.”

His warning came after Inpe published preliminary satellite data showing deforestation in the Amazon rainforest accelerated in the first half of July to more than 1,000 square kilometres, a jump of 68 per cent from the entire month of July 2018.

Green parties and farmers in Europe may seize on the rising deforestation in Brazil to call for the EU-Mercosur trade deal to be abandoned.     

source: express.co.uk