Merz doesn’t believe Belém comments strained relations with Brazil

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz does not believe that his controversial comments about Belém, the Amazonian city hosting the UN Climate Change Conference summit, have harmed relations with Brazil.

“I said that Germany is one of the most beautiful countries in the world, and President Lula will probably accept that,” Merz said on Wednesday at a press conference with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson in Berlin.

Environment Minister Carsten Schneider had spoken to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Brazil on Wednesday afternoon, Merz said. “I asked him to pass on my warmest regards to President Lula.”

The chancellor said he would have “another good conversation” with Lula at the G20 summit in Johannesburg at the weekend, “completely unencumbered.”

Following his visit to the climate conference in Belém, which only lasted around 20 hours, Merz spoke at a trade conference in Berlin about his impressions of the poor city in the northern Brazilian state of Pará.

Merz had travelled to Belém for a summit two weeks ago ahead of the negotiations. On his return to Berlin, the chancellor said he had asked journalists who accompanied him whether any of them wanted to stay in the city.

“No one raised their hand,” Merz said. He argued that the reporters were “happy” to return to Germany, which he described as “one of the most beautiful countries in the world.”

The statement triggered outraged reactions in Brazil, including from Lula.

Merz should have gone to a bar, danced there and tasted the local cuisine, “because then he would have realized that Berlin doesn’t even offer him 10% of the quality that the state of Pará and the city of Belém offer,” Lula shot back.