British man asks for ‘respect’ on the day of the queen’s funeral and is harassed by bolsonaristas in London

• Ricardo Senra and Giovanni Bello
• From BBC News Brazil in London

Updated 34 minutes ago

A 61-year-old retired British man who passed in front of the Brazilian ambassador’s residence in London, this Monday (19), was harassed by Bolsonaristas when he asked the public to act with “respect” on the day of Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral.

The retiree, who later identified himself to the BBC News Brazil team as Chris Harvey, came across a group of supporters of Jair Bolsonaro (PL) arguing with a man who began to criticize the president.

“You are in England, show some respect, it’s the day of the queen’s funeral”, shouted the Brit after Bolsonaristas questioned what he was doing there and told him to shut up.

Bolsonaro is in the UK to attend the funeral and stayed at the ambassador’s official residence, where supporters flocked to try to speak to him on Sunday and Monday.

The confusion began when a man holding a Brazilian flag approached Bolsonaro supporters saying he was a Christian, but that “religion today in Brazil is partial”.

Silas Malafaia, who is part of Bolsonaro’s entourage and was talking to supporters of the president at the time, led a chorus of “myth, myth, myth”.

The man with the Brazilian flag then began to ask, also shouting, why the public present there “wasn’t worried” about the fires in the Amazon, “about knowing who murdered former councilor Marielle Franco” and about the “origin of the money used to buy real estate from the Bolsonaro family”.

The president’s supporters surrounded the man, calling him a PT. At that point, Harvey said he saw what he thought was a situation of intimidation and decided to intervene: “This man has the right to protest. This is England.”

Bolsonaro supporters then also approached the Briton shouting “Bolsonaro 2022, Bolsonaro president”. One of the Bolsonaristas said: “You don’t know anything about your own country”.

“You are disrespecting Brazil. This is the queen’s funeral. Show more respect! This is very wrong, it is disrespectful to the queen. Your president must not be happy with your behavior,” said the Briton, in English.

While the confusion was going on, a group of approximately 20 police officers formed a cordon to protect the man who carried the Brazilian flag and who had started criticizing Bolsonaro.

In the meantime, Bolsonaro left the ambassador’s residence, took pictures with supporters and got into a car without speaking to the press.

Bolsonaro arrived in London on Saturday (18) to attend the funeral of the queen, who died at the age of 96. He and other heads of state were invited by the British government to pay their last respects to the monarch.

Bolsonaro is accompanied by the first lady, Michelle Bolsonaro, Pastor Silas Malafaia, the Assembly of God Vitória em Cristo, among other advisors and supporters. Upon arriving at the Brazilian ambassador’s official residence in Mayfair, he gave a speech from the balcony to a group of supporters who had gathered in front of the building.

The president opened his speech by saying that it was a time of sorrow and speaking of “deep respect for the Queen’s family and the people of the United Kingdom”. He said that was the “main objective”, but spoke in the remaining four minutes or so about the political context in Brazil and his reelection campaign platform.

“There’s no way we can’t win in the first round,” Bolsonaro said.

On the same day, he visited the queen’s coffin, at Westminster Abbey, accompanied by Michelle Bolsonaro and Silas Malafaia.

At night, he recorded a video at a gas station criticizing the price of gasoline in the country that Elizabeth II ruled for 70 years.

“I’m here in London, England, the price of gasoline is £1.61. That’s approximately R$9.70 a liter. That is, practically double the average of many Brazilian states. So, gasoline is one of the most cockroaches in the world. It’s the Brazilian government working for you,” Bolsonaro said in the video, not to mention that the average purchasing power of residents of England is much higher than that of Brazilians.

Asked about Bolsonaro speaking in an election campaign amid the queen’s funeral ceremonies, the former secretary of communication of the Bolsonaro government, Fábio Wajngarten, who was part of the president’s entourage on the trip to London, argued that the president began his speech today talking about the funeral.

Malafaia, on the other hand, said that it is not possible to “pretend that there is not an electoral process in Brazil”.

The British press recorded the events during the Brazilian president’s visit to London.

Both left-leaning newspapers such as The Guardian and right-leaning newspapers such as the Daily Mail addressed the president’s speech at the ambassador’s official residence.

“As global leaders arrive in the United Kingdom to express their respect for the Queen, the leader of the populist radical right Jair Bolsonaro held an aggressive rally from the window of his country’s embassy incensing a crowd with flags,” the Daily Mail reported.

The Guardian said that “President Bolsonaro uses a visit to London for the queen’s funeral as an ‘electoral platform'”.

The Times newspaper wrote that Bolsonaro “used his trip to the queen’s funeral to show his country how expensive fuel is in London”.

And a report by the Independent says that “the controversial Bolsonaro took advantage of the trip to London to try to convince undecided voters of his international importance, taking his political campaign along with the trip”.

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