Brazil will reject an offer of $22 million in emergency aid from G7 countries to help fight wildfires raging through the Amazon, according to a top presidential aide, who branded the gesture as “imperialist” and said the funds should be used to “reforest Europe” instead.
World leaders at the G7 summit in Biarritz pledged $22 million Monday to help Brazil fight the record number of fires burning in Brazil, after summit host Macron highlighted the issue as an urgent crisis harming “the lungs of the planet.”
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But the global concern over the fires has riled Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, who insists the blazes are a domestic issue and has Macron of adopting a “colonialist mindset” towards his country. On Monday, Bolsonaro’s chief of staff, Onyx Lorenzoni, said the government would not take up the offer.
“We appreciate [the offer], but maybe those resources are more relevant to reforest Europe,” Lorenzoni told Brazil’s G1 news website.
“Brazil is a democratic, free nation that never had colonialist and imperialist practices, as perhaps is the objective of the Frenchman Macron.”
Source: Brazil Tells The G7 and Its Amazon Fire Fund To Go To Hell
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