Original Translation by José Atento

From this Portuguese publication:

The French president stated that group will send 20 million euros to combat fires. ‘Perhaps these resources are more relevant to reforest Europe,’ replied the minister.

by Gerson Camarotti and Mateus Rodrigues
August 26, 2019

The Minister of the House, Onyx Lorenzoni, told the blog that the government will reject the aid of the G7 to combat the fires in the Amazon, which was announced on Monday (August 26) by French President Emmanuel Macron. The office of the Planalto Palace confirmed the information given by Onyx.

The aid was announced in France after Macron attended a G7 meeting. According to him, the group decided to allocate €20 million to combat the fire [later, the French government corrected itself and reported that it was $20 million].

The French President and President Jair Bolsonaro have been publicly criticizing each other since last week.

“Thanks, but perhaps these resources are more relevant to reforesting Europe. Can Macron not even prevent a predictable fire in a church that is a World Heritage Site, yet wants to teach something to our country? He has a lot to look after at home and in the French colonies,” Onyx told the blog.

“Brazil is a democratic, free nation, and has never engaged in colonialist and imperialist practices, as is perhaps the objective of the French Macron. Incidentally, coincidentally, with high domestic rejection rates,” added the minister of the Civil House.

Onyx Lorenzoni also said to the blog that Brazil can teach “any nation” how to protect native forests. “By the way, there is no country that has a larger native coverage than ours,” he added.

MRE speaks of ‘redundant initiatives’

By means of a note, the Ministry of Foreign Relations (MRE) reported that despite the “supposed launch of new initiatives related to the Amazon” to reforest the region, there are already instruments provided for this type of measure.

According to the note, the actions are foreseen in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and already include, for example, the payment by developed countries like France of US $30 billion for the reduction in Brazil of greenhouse gas emissions.

“France — and other countries that may support its ideas — are expected to engage seriously in these discussions within the UNFCCC, rather than launching redundant initiatives, with amounts well below their international commitments, and with ambiguous innuendo about the principle of national sovereignty,” states the MRE.

Salles said help is ‘welcome’

Earlier on Monday, Environment Minister Ricardo Salles even said that the aid announced by the G7 was “welcome”.

Also on Monday, Bolsonaro did not say whether or not the support would be accepted, but questioned the announcement made by Macron. “Does anyone help anyone — except a poor person, right? — without return? […] What have they wanted there for so long?”

Amazon Fund

On the 15th, when Norway decided to suspend the transfer of money to the Amazon Fund, President Bolsonaro suggested that the country transfer the money to Germany.

“Norway is not the one that kills whales up there at the North Pole, is it? It also exploits oil there? It has nothing to set an example for us. Take the money and help Angela Merkel reforest Germany,” Bolsonaro said on this occasion.