Wednesday December 16, 2020
Relationship tense
"Tropical Trump" Bolsonaro congratulates Biden
Brazil’s right-wing extremist President Bolsonaro had hoped for a second term from Donald Trump. Now he too has to bow to the facts. As one of the last heads of state, he congratulates the future US President Joe Biden on his election victory.
Later than many other heads of state and government, the Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro congratulated his future US colleague Joe Biden on his election victory. Quoting the American national anthem, Bolsonaro wrote on Twitter on Tuesday: "With best wishes and the hope that the US will continue to be the" land of the free and the home of the brave. " He is ready to work with the new government and give continuity to the alliance between Brazil and the US.
In the election campaign, right-wing extremist Bolsonaro openly supported US President Donald Trump as his ally and announced that he would travel to Washington at the beginning of his second term in office. He only congratulated Biden after electoral officials in the states had confirmed the Democrat's victory over Trump and the handover could no longer be shaken. US media had declared Biden the election winner on November 7th.
The Brazilian President has been in office since the beginning of 2019. Right from the start, his government has been clearly pro-American. Bolsonaro has been nicknamed "Tropical Trump" because of his populist statements and his sometimes confrontational appearance in the media and the public. From Biden, Bolsonaro is likely to face headwinds, especially in environmental and climate policy, because of the deforestation and the fires in Brazil's Amazon region. In the event of further destruction, the then US presidential candidate had announced "considerable economic consequences".
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