Federal Deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro (SP) announced on Tuesday (22) that he is no longer seeking to become Ambassador in Washington--one day after being confirmed PSL leader in the House. He denied that his new post was the determining factor in the decision.
Eduardo made the announcement before the vote on the agreement between the US and Brazil on the Alcântara base (MA) closed. Eduardo went to the floor as a party leader and used his time to justify the choice.
Recalling that 1.84 million people elected him, Eduardo said that the speech would disappoint those who were hoping for his trip to the United States, thinking that he would be far from Brazilian political life.
In the speech, President Jair Bolsonaro's son "03" criticized Cuban doctors in the Mais Médicos program and BNDES funding for Odebrecht to build the port of Muriel. According to him, the money probably was shipped "in whiskey cases" to former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Eduardo criticized former senator and former federal deputy Tilden Santiago, who was appointed by Lula in 2003, when he was a member of the PT, to the post of ambassador in Cuba by Lula.
"An Ambassador is someone who represents Brazil abroad, and if a politician who failed to get elected goes to represent the whole group of Brazilians abroad, what about the most voted deputy in the country's history? Surely I would not lack legitimacy," he said.
"This one who speaks to you, the son of a Brazilian Army soldier and federal deputy who was mocked for having had a decent and honest job at fast-food restaurants in the United States at the age of 20, says he will stay in Brazil to defend conservative principles, to make the tsunami that was the 2018 election a permanent wave," he said in plenary.
He also thanked US President Donald Trump for blocking the intentions of "internationalizing the Amazon" and argued that being close to the United States is rescuing Brazilian diplomacy.
Translated by Kiratiana Freelon