Bolsonaro launches 'Brazil week' in bid to 'revamp' image over Amazon fires
Source: The Guardian
Bolsonaro launches Brazil week in bid to 'revamp' image over Amazon fires
President urged citizens to hit the streets and show the Amazon is ours amid sinking ratings and vilification over the Amazon
Dom Phillips in Rio de Janeiro and Tom Phillips in Porto Velho
Fri 6 Sep 2019 13.07 BST
Last modified on Fri 6 Sep 2019 23.45 BST
Brazils far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, has urged citizens to clad themselves in the countrys yellow and green and hit the streets as part of a populist push designed to shore up support amid sinking ratings and international vilification over the Amazon.
Bolsonaro made the appeal before Saturdays annual 7 September independence day celebrations, for which tub-thumping and highly politicized displays of patriotism will be on show.
Its to show the world that this is Brazil. That the Amazon is ours, Bolsonaro said on Tuesday as he launched what officials dubbed Brazil week a seven-day carnival of consumption that begins on Friday.
Bernardo Mello Franco, a columnist for Brazils O Globo newspaper, described the gambit as a bid to revamp Bolsonaros flagging image, which has been badly hit by international outrage over the Amazon fires and Brazils somnolent economy.
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Read more:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/sep/06/bolsonaro-brazil-week-amazon-fires