Steven N.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro (pictured) is making his first trip to Hungary today, Bertalan Havasi, the Prime Minister’s press chief, told news agency MTI on Tuesday. While in Budapest, the Brazilian head of state will hold talks with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán after meeting with President János Áder.
According to Havasi, the President of Brazil would be arriving in Budapest on Thursday morning. He first plans to lay a wreath at Heroes’ Square, then pay a visit to President János Áder in the Alexander Palace.
Following this, Jair Bolsonaro and Viktor Orbán will hold talks at the Prime Minister’s office in the Carmelite Monastery and release a joint statement afterwards, said the head of the Prime Minister’s Press Office.
Although this is Bolsonaro’s first trip to Hungary, it’s not the first meeting between the two men, as the Hungarian Prime Minister was one of the few European leaders who attended Jair Bolsonaro’s presidential inauguration on January 1, 2018.
While Viktor Orbán and Jair Bolsonaro may share several similar views, they are different in one key area: unlike Orbán, the Brazilian president is famously skeptical of the coronavirus epidemic. Bolsonaro has not been vaccinated, and has had several posts and videos removed from Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube for spreading false information, such as the claim that the vaccine causes AIDS.
It was also reported last month that President Bolsonaro would be visiting Budapest directly from Moscow, where he planned to meet with President Vladimir Putin. [HVG]
