Macron slams Bolsonaro after insults about wife

French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday condemned “extraordinarily rude” comments about his wife Brigitte by Brazilian counterpart Jair Bolsonaro in an escalating spat between the two men. Bolsonaro and Macron have repeatedly locked horns in the last weeks as the French president sought to put climate change and the environment at the heart of agenda of the G7 summit he is hosting in Biarritz, as fires ravaged the Amazon basin.

But the endorsement by Bolsanaro of vicious personal comments about Macron’s wife posted online appeared to force their relationship to a new low. “He has made some extraordinarily rude comments about my wife,” Macron said at a press conference in Biarritz.

“What can I say? It’s sad. It’s sad for him firstly, and for Brazilians,” he added. On Sunday, a Bolsonaro supporter posted a message on Facebook mocking the appearance of Brigitte Macron and comparing her unfavourably with Brazil’s first lady Michelle Bolsonaro. “Now you understand why Macron is persecuting Bolsonaro?” he wrote next to an unflattering picture of Brigitte Macron, 65, who is 28 years older than Bolsonaro’s wife, Michelle. 

Bolsonaro replied on Facebook: “Do not humiliate the guy, ha ha.” “I think Brazilian women will probably be ashamed to read that from their president,” Macron said. “I think that Brazilians, who are a great people, will probably be ashamed to see this behaviour.”

“And as I feel friendship and respect towards the Brazilian people, I hope that they will very soon have a president who behaves in the right way.” Ahead of the G7 summit, Macron had bitterly accused Bolsonaro of lying to him at the G20 meeting in Osaka in June about his commitments on climate change.