Federal deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro, son of President Jair Bolsonaro, becomes the center of a diplomatic crisis, after publicly blaming China for the coronavirus pandemic; allies of the Brazilian president distance themselves and Bolsonaro and he could suffer impeachment, according to Senator Major Olímpio

Since Thursday (19.03.2020), the Chinese Embassy in Brazil and Congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro have been harshly accusing each other on social media. The Embassy of China even published a Twitter saying that the parliamentarian's speech is “absurd and prejudiced”. It all started after Eduardo blamed China for the coronavirus pandemic. The president's son blamed the Chinese government and compared Covid-19 to the Chernobyl nuclear accident.

In Brazil, Eduardo Bolsonaro's speech was widely criticized by the media, by Brazilian citizens (on Twitter) and even by Brazilian Vice President Hamilton Mourão said that Eduardo Bolsonaro's criticisms of China do not represent the government's position.

However, it is impossible to dissociate Eduardo's speech from Jair Bolsonaro's ideas. The relationship between the current president of Brazil with China has always been very complicated. During the presidential campaign, in 2018, Bolsonaro even said that China should buy Brazilian products and not "buy Brazil". Then, in 2019, during a visit to China, Bolsonaro said he was visiting a "capitalist country". Now, a member of the Bolsonaro clan decides to enter diplomatic conflict with Brazil's largest trading partner. In 2019, the trade balance with the Asian country had a surplus of another 30 billion dollars: Brazil exported 65.3 billion dollars, and imported 35.8 billion dollars.

Isolated government

According to the Congresso em Foco website, "President Jair Bolsonaro is losing support in the National Congress and in Brazilian society. Surrounded by daily national demonstrations, he is increasingly isolated.

In an exclusive interview with Congresso em Foco, a faithful ally to the president, the leader of the PSL in the Senate, Major Olimpio (SP), "says that decisive segments for the election of Bolsonaro in 2018, such as agribusiness, public security professionals and evangelicals, represented by the most influential benches in Congress, are distancing themselves from the president because of dissatisfaction with his government. Investors, he notes, also do not feel safe to bet on the country, due to the political instability created almost always by the president himself and your children".