French NGOs Want Macron to Cancel Forum With Brazilian Officials

By Lise Alves, Senior Contributing Reporter

SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL – Echoing the mobilization seen in New York in April, France’s non-government organizations (NGO) are coming together to  ask Emmanuel Macron’s government not to lay out the “red carpet for Brazil’s extreme right” next month and to cancel an event at Bercy, reports French newspaper Libération.

“We, French citizens, Franco-Brazilians and Europeans, collectives, associations and NGOs, Brazilian democrats living in Brazil or in exile, and engaged citizens of the United States, categorically reject that an event incompatible with the values of democracy can be held in its premises (Bercy – the Ministry of Economy’s headquarters) and with the support of a French ministry,” stated the demand published in the French newspaper.

The Libération report goes on to say that the same government that, at the beginning of May, received in the Elysee indigenous Amazon leader Raoni, “assuring him of the support of France to preserve the Amazon”, cannot now host a forum whose guests are representatives of a government that has supported the opening up of the Amazon region to mining and industrial companies.

“The Bolsonaro government and its far-right allies are pushing for the criminalization of social movements and the exclusion of minorities, the widespread dismantling of environmental protection policies and the destruction of the rights of indigenous peoples,” says Libération.

The media outlet goes on to state that the Brazilian government’s ideological base is centered around racist, homophobic, and misogynist arguments, “incompatible with democratic values”.

Among the NGOs campaigning for the cancellation of the forum on June 5th are Act Up-Paris, Alerte France Brésil, Attac, France Libertés, Fondation Danielle Mitterrand, and Planète Amazone.

“Let us make sure that this cancellation is the prerequisite for the implementation of a real policy of support for threatened populations in Brazil and the fight against the extreme right,” concludes the newspaper.