After Guyana, Emmanuel Macron arrived in Brazil on Tuesday March 26. The French president was welcomed by President Lula in Belém, the host city of the next COP. A first symbolic step to mark the friendship between the two heads of state, but also to decorate the cacique Raoni with the Legion of Honor in a place like no other, the island of Combú, in the heart of the Amazon forest.
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With our special correspondent in Brazil, Valérie Gas
When Emmanuel Macron And Lula arrived, night was beginning to fall on the forest. The two presidents had sailed for an hour together. A cruise on the river and a first interview in shirt sleeves in the humid air of Belém, to immediately show their closeness and their relaxation, before arriving on the island of Combú where the cacique Raoni, the leader of the water people, the defender of the indigenous people.
A man and a symbol that Emmanuel Macron decorated with the Legion of Honor: “ Alongside my friend President Lula, today, making common cause for the Amazon, which belongs to you, and which is this treasure both of biodiversity, but also where so many indigenous peoples have built their lives, their traditions. They are the custodians of an art of living. I am happy that we can celebrate you at this moment. »
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Make environmental protection a common ambition with Brazil
A ceremony organized in full Amazon forest. The setting itself was a message. Raoni’s speech took on even more power.
Raoni called on Emmanuel Macron and Lula to continue the fight for the environment against deforestation and asked them to support his candidacy for the Nobel Peace Prize. A first Brazilian sequence for Emmanuel Macron which shows the intention of the French head of state: to make environmental protection a common ambition with Brazil.