Bolsonaro: Brazil should not deal with corona ‘like fags’ | Abroad

Bolsonaro, who heads the country with the second highest corona toll in the world, made the statement during a lengthy speech from the presidential palace. In the extraordinarily fierce speech, he also seemed to be threatening the incoming US president Joe Biden.

“Everyone is just talking about the pandemic these days. We have to stop doing that, ”said Bolsonaro, when apparently speaking about tourism. “I regret the deaths. Really. But we all die someday. There is no point in fleeing from reality. We have to stop being a country of fags. We must raise our heads and fight. I hate this fagot thing. ”

‘Hysteria’

Bolsonaro’s statements are just the latest in a string of controversial statements about the pandemic. Earlier, he condemned the “hysteria” surrounding Covid-19, which he said was nothing more than a “little flu.” Bolsonaro also stated that Brazilians’ immune systems are so strong that they could swim through sewage “without getting anything.”

Bolsonaro also passed out a thinly veiled sneer at Joe Biden, who has vehemently criticized Bolsonaro for doing next to nothing to stop the destruction of the Amazon rainforest. Bolsonaro is known to be an ally of incumbent US President Donald Trump. Bolsonaro is one of the few world leaders who has not yet congratulated Biden on his election victory over Trump.

“Recently, a big boy of a presidential candidate said he would impose trade sanctions on Brazil if I didn’t extinguish the Amazon forest fires,” Bolsonaro said. “How do you deal with that? Diplomacy alone does not work. You must have gunpowder. You don’t have to use it, but they need to know you have it. ”

Bolsonaro’s speech was immediately criticized. “In addition to ‘gunpowder’ and ‘fagots’, we have more than 160,000 deaths in this country,” Rodrigo Maia, the Liberal Speaker of the lower house of Brazil’s parliament, wrote on Twitter. “Our solidarity with all friends and family of corona victims.”

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