https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/27/amazon-fires-brazil-to-reject-20m-pledged-by-g7
A senior Brazilian official has told Emmanuel Macron to take care of "his home and his colonies" as Brazil rejected an offer from G7 countries of $20m (£16m) to help fight fires in the Amazon.
"We appreciate [the offer], but maybe those resources are more relevant to reforest Europe," Onyx Lorenzoni, the chief of staff to President Jair Bolsonaro, told the G1 news website.
"Macron cannot even avoid a foreseeable fire in a church that is a world heritage site," Lorenzoni said in a reference to the blaze that devastated the Notre Dame cathedral in April. "What does he intend to teach our country?
"Brazil is a democratic, free nation that never had colonialist and imperialist practices, as perhaps is the objective of the Frenchman Macron."
The announcement of the $20m assistance package was the most concrete outcome of the three-day G7 summit of major industrialised democracies in Biarritz and aimed to give money to Amazonian nations such as Brazil and Bolivia, primarily to pay for more firefighting planes.
Tensions have risen between France and Brazil after Macron tweeted that the fires burning in the Amazon basin amounted to an international crisis and should be discussed as a top priority at the G7 summit. Bolsonaro reacted by accusing Macron of having a "colonialist mentality".
Guess planet endangering forest fires take a backseat to bruised egos.The diplomatic row between the leaders had escalated earlier in the day, when Macron condemned Bolsonaro for what he called "extraordinarily rude" comments made about his wife, Brigitte, after the Brazilian president expressed approval online for a Facebook post implying that Brigitte Macron was not as good-looking as his own wife, Michelle.
"He has made some extraordinarily rude comments about my wife," Macron said at a press conference in Biarritz when asked to react to statements about him by the Brazilian government. "What can I say? It's sad. It's sad for him firstly, and for Brazilians," he added.
Macron said he hoped for the sake of the Brazilian people "that they will very soon have a president who behaves in the right way".