A lunch between Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and Jair Bolsonaro at the Itamarati Palace in Brasilia on 2 August was again covered in the Brazilian press by one of the most respected Brazilian columnists for the Globo newspaper, Lauro Jardim. uncovered two sexual jokes from the President of Brazil that confused his Portuguese colleague.

At the table, one of the moments that confused the Portuguese entourage came when Marcelo said that he sometimes substituted a national supplement for dinner, assuring that “it’s good for everything.” The Brazilian President responded with malicious intent, “Hmm, that’s good for everything, isn’t it?” After the joke, Bolsonaro could not help laughing, and the Portuguese environment remained unresponsive.

In another episode, Marcelo told the story of a Portuguese diplomat’s oral test examiners who were interrupted by Bolsonaro, who hinted: “Oral is good, right?” After this intervention, the Brazilian president was again left laughing to himself, and the Portuguese delegation was embarrassed.

Answering a question from journalists about the attitude of his Brazilian colleague, Marcelo said that he did not want “make judgments” especially “judgments about the posture of the owners.”

The meeting between Marcelo and Bolsonaro was marked by contrasts in the use of masks, but the president did not want to “formulate judgments” about the hosts.

According to description Lauro Jardim, Bolsonaro “he played a barbecue aunt”, he made fun of the students of the “fifth grade”, while emphasizing that the Portuguese delegation was “very impressed” by the President of Brazil.

The Associação pela Fraternidade Portugal-Brasil also condemned the “jokes of a sexual nature” made by the President of Brazil, also highlighting “joking references to the Portuguese people.” “Bolsonaro has ingeniously singled out a repertoire of nonsense and rudeness that embarrassed a select group of international authorities,” reads a note to the rebuttal published in August.

The association called on Jair Bolsonaro to “make a public apology” at a time when “Brazil is still in a health crisis, being the country in the world that kills the most people with Covid, increasingly isolated economically and diplomatically.”

In Brasilia, the heads of the two states held a working meeting together, followed by a lunch. Meetings were still scheduled in contrast to the two delegations with regard to hygiene measures… While Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and the Portuguese entourage always wore a mask, Jair Bolsonaro and his entourage rejected it.

At the meetings of the two presidents, cooperation relations between the two countries were discussed, namely at the economic level, as well as Portugal’s participation in the celebration of the 200th anniversary of Brazil’s independence, which is celebrated in 2022. Agreement on European Union and MERCOSURsigned in 2019, but not yet in force due to the fact that countries such as France, Austria or Belgium have not ratified it, because there has been no strengthening of environmental policy, mainly by the Brazilian side.

Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa also met potential presidential candidate Lula da Silva, as well as other former Brazilian presidents such as Jose Sarni, Fernando Henrique Cardoso and Michel Temer.

With “political delicacy” and “formal alibis”, Marcelo meets Lula and Bolsonara to ensure the future of relations with Brazil.