I’ve never seen anything like it in terms of beautiful girls…The refugee queue … it’s like 200 meters long or more of just total goddesses- Brazilian Politician
Arthur do Val heard in leaked audio messages calling women fleeing war ‘easy because they’re poor’
A conspicuous individual from the Brazilian govt is facing calls to resign after he was uncovered in leaked audio messages making a succession of callous and sexist comments about Ukrainian refugees during a purportedly humanitarian mission to the recently attacked country.
Arthur do Val, a São Paulo congressman and former supporter of Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, made a three-day trip to the region last week, supposedly to raise awareness of the human cost of Vladimir Putin’s attack.
“I’ve just crossed the border on foot between Ukraine and Slovakia. Bro, I swear to you … I’ve never seen anything like it in terms of beautiful girls. The refugee queue … it’s like 200 meters long or more of just total goddesses,” he said, according to the Guardian. “It’s some incredible s–t … The queue outside Brazil’s best nightclub … doesn’t come close to the refugee queue here.”
The outlet said Do Val also called Ukrainian women “easy because they’re poor.”
According to Brazilian media, he also made derogatory remarks about security officials at the Ukraine-Slovakia border, saying, “Just unbelievable, buddy.”
“I’m coming back as soon as this conflict is over.”
On Thursday Do Val, 35, tweeted a photograph of himself surrounded by crates of motolov cocktails in the border city of Uzhhorod. His travelling partner, the rightwing activist Renan Santos, said they had donated thousands of dollars, helped refugees cross the border and “filmed the reality of a country at war”.
Fabiana Tronenko, the wife of Ukraine’s former ambassador to Brazil, published a tearful Twitter video in which she called the politician a shameless cretin. “Show some respect, you punk … you’ve no idea what the Ukrainian people are going through.”
Ukraine’s chargé d’affaires in Brazil, Anatoliy Tkach, called the remarks unacceptable.
Do Val, who returned to Brazil on Saturday to discover he had lost key allies and his girlfriend, apologised and sought to justify his words. After three days “without drinking water or having a shower” he claimed he had become “over-excited”.
“My mind was racing. I talked nonsense,” he said, abandoning plans to run for São Paulo’s governorship. Critics were unimpressed, calling his behaviour typical of Brazil’s chauvinist and testosterone-charged hard-right.
“How nauseating,” tweeted Gleisi Hoffmann, the president of Brazil’s Workers’ party. “This is the kind of person who elected Bolsonaro! He must be stripped of power.”
