“Next time we will go dancing together”

Statement about Belem

This is how Lula reacted when she met Merz again

Merz was eager to get away when he visited the Amazonian metropolis of Belem two weeks ago. The wave of anger in Brazil has now been followed by a reconciliation summit in Africa.

After a wave of anger in Brazil over his statements about the Amazonian metropolis of Belém, Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) has reconciled with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. “They embraced verbally for 40 minutes,” people close to Merz said afterwards. Lula gives the Chancellor tips about restaurants for his next visit to Belém and also tells him dances he can try. The Chancellor then said: “Good, next time we will go dancing together.”

Merz took part in a summit at the start of the World Climate Conference in Belém two weeks ago and met Lula there too. Upon his return, he made comments about the extremely poor city in the Amazon in a way that many Brazilians found insulting and offensive.

“I asked some of the journalists I was with in Brazil last week: Which one of you wants to stay here? Nobody raised a hand,” he said. “They were all happy for us to be back in Germany, especially from where we were, Friday night into Saturday.”

Most importantly, Merz wanted to say that he thought Germany was one of the most beautiful countries in the world. But in Brazil, a storm of anger emerged after a brief delay. Lula is also involved. Merz should go to a bar, dance there and try local cuisine, the president said, “because then he will realize that Berlin does not offer even ten percent of the quality that the state of Pará and the city of Belém offer.” Now the two of them have arranged to go dancing.