This is one of the highlights of Jair Bolsonaro’s populist struggle to portray himself as a non-freak of the nation: a can of fist-sized can of condensed milk that costs about $ 0.80 per doll.
Since his shock in the 2018 election, the president of Brazil has repeatedly appeared to use his breakfast roll with the sugar-laden liquid – especially known during a breakfast dinner with Donald Trump’s national security adviser, John Bolton.
But the allegations, which were later partially rejected, that the Bolsonaro government spent 15.6 million euros (£ 2.1 million) on his favorite food last year caused a public uproar, with opponents and opponents calling the president s excessive eating habits.
“Those responsible must be punished!” left-wing Ciro Gomes thundered on Twitter, demanding that a Supreme Court inquiry be conducted into ‘Bolandaro’s unimaginable spending’.
Sâmia Bomfim, a Socialist congresswoman, said Brazilians deserve to know how 7,200 cans of condensed milk could be swallowed every day. “Did the presidential family digest it all?” she wonders after the allegations were published by a news website Metropolis.
Points to the deadly Covid crisis in the Amazon, Congressman Marcelo Freixo assert that “with the money Bolsonaro spent on condensed milk, 8,000 cylinders of oxygen could be bought to suffocate Brazilians to death”.
Conservative columnist Merval Pereira condemns ‘scandal’ [that] would be comical if it were not tragic ”. In addition to the condensed milk, 2.2 million reais were reportedly spent on chewing gum, 8.9 million on chocolate and 31.5 million on fizzy drinks, Pereira complained in the O Globo newspaper, denying that the expenses caused ‘civil digestion’. “Even though condensed milk has become a serving craze, there are two million cans on top,” the columnist smoked.
The truth, lost amid the online uproar and an explosion of memes and recipes, has apparently revealed less about Bolsonaro’s taste buds.
The fact-checking website Aos Fatos reported that the values quoted by Metropolis refer to the federal government’s total expenditure, rather than just the presidency. Most of the condensed milk – £ 1.9 million ($ 2.6 million) – was purchased by the Ministry of Defense to feed tens of thousands of sweet tooth feeders.
Thomas Traumann, a political communications specialist, said it was ironic that Bolsonaro, who was in power on a tsunami of fake news and misinformation, got a taste of his own medicine.
Traumann predicted that the condensed milk would not drop Bolsonaro. But the story was a PR blow for a president who was already under pressure due to the health care collapse in the Amazon. “They started the year defensively on social media, this is the area they master the most,” he said.
In an indication of the discomfort of the Bolsonaro family, the president told the “shit” journalists that they “should go fuck”. “Put a can of condensed milk in your asses,” Bolsonaro declares.
His son, Eduardo, has published a series of tweets defending condensed milk as a ‘calorie-rich food’ essential to Brazilian cuisine.
Filipe Martins, a presidential assistant, has uttered the ‘stupid and criminal allegation’ against his boss. He blames the “rotten media” for the dairy ball highs.