(Photo by Yasuyoshi CHIBA/AFP via Getty Images)
BY OLIVER STUENKEL | JULY 30, 2020
Competing visions in Berlin reveal broader dilemma about how to engage with Jair Bolsonaro’s government.
São Paulo – When in late May the German Green Party Congressman Uwe Kekeritz questioned a government plan to finance a Brazilian forest protection program, he made sure to mention an episode that had recently rattled Brazilian politics. In a recorded meeting of President Jair Bolsonaro’s cabinet that was later made public, Brazil’s Environment Minister Ricardo Salles suggested that the pandemic was an opportunity to weaken environmental regulations since public opinion was “distracted.” In Berlin, Kekeritz referenced the episode to protest the idea of supporting a project overseen by Salles.
But the congressman went further and also attacked German support for the EU-Mercosur trade deal: “Do you really want to sign a trade agreement with such a criminal regime where human rights and rule of law play no role?”
Debates in Berlin about Brazil reveal a broader dilemma as economic and geopolitical interests clash with surging public concern about the environment. Should Bolsonaro be treated as a temporary irritant to a longstanding partnership or as a more fundamental obstacle to deepening ties?
One of Germany’s main foreign policy priorities is to push through the ratification of the EU-Mercosur agreement during the country’s rotating presidency of the European Council…
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