National Museum in Rio, when Jair Bolsonaro was saying: by now it has caught fire, what am I supposed to do with it?

The winner of the first round of Brazil’s presidential elections, the far-right populist Jair Messias Bolsonaro (who won 46 percent of the vote and will challenge Fernando Haddad of the Workers’ Party, who achieved 29.3 percent of the vote, in the runoff), has always shown a superficial and borderline dismissive attitude toward culture. His intentions includeabolishing the Ministry of Culture, which the extremist candidate (and according to many favored for victory) would like to reduce to a mere secretariat of the Ministry of Education. Moreover, in one of the few statements released to the press, Bolsonaro expressed his intention not to allocate more public money to museums than they are already receiving.

The latter issue is particularly hot in Brazil, since many Brazilians blame the devastating fire that destroyed the National Museum in Rio de Janeiro on the government’s lack of investment in the sector (the museum’s fire-fighting systems were old and inadequate and in need of modernization). On the National Museum affair, Jair Bolsonaro was interviewed by UOL newspaper, and the candidate showed almost disinterest in the fate of the museum. When asked what he thought about the incident and the fact that the affair caused a great mobilization, Bolsonaro replied, “so what? It’s happened now, it caught fire, what am I supposed to do about it? My middle name is Messias but I don’t work miracles.” And when the reporter pointed out to him that the problem arose because of the lack of funds for museums, the retort was, “if there is no money, patience [...]. If, on the other hand, there is money, as president I will make you find the funding ready.” Finally, when questioned about his proposal for the cultural sector, Bolsonaro replied that he did not have a program for culture, and when confronted with the journalist’s insistence, he merely replied that “culture is important,” but that for him culture is that of “roots,” and that there will be resources for musicians who intend to launch a career in traditional music.

Image: Jair Bolsonaro, ph. credit Fabio Rodrigues Pozzebom/Agência Brasil. Next, Rio’s National Museum destroyed after the fire

National Museum in Rio, when Jair Bolsonaro was saying: by now it has caught fire, what am I supposed to do with it?

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