A video seen more than two million times that seems to show Pro-Bolsonaro protesters giving Nazi greeting has unleashed a heated controversy in Brazil, which caused an official investigation and the condemnation of Germany and Israel embassies.
The events took place on Wednesday during the protests against the defeat of the ultra -rightist leader Jair Bolsonaro in front of the former leftist president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in the presidential elections last Sunday.
The images show hundreds of Bolsonaro supporters with extended arms singing the National Anthem of Brazil near a road control in San Miguel do Oeste, in the southern state of Santa Catarina, who vote overwhelmingly for Bolsonaro.
An open investigation
Many users of social networks compared the gesture with the greeting of Nazi Germany and shared it to denounce an apology of Nazism, punishable by law in Brazil.
Others denied this association and attributed the gesture to a greeting to the flag in Brazil, oblivious to Nazism. After the controversy, the Public Ministry of Santa Catarina opened an investigation that established, in a preliminary way, that “there were no indications” that it was an act of apology of Nazism.
The investigation also failed to identify the presence of Nazi symbols at the location, as false information claims.
The gesture of the protesters responded to a request from the presenter of the “stretch her hand over the shoulder of the person in front, or (…) extend the arm, to emanate positive energies”, according to a note published by the prosecution on Wednesday.
Reactions of German and Israeli diplomats
“The use of Nazi and fascist symbols by ‘protesters’ clearly of the extreme right is deeply shocking. Sorry for Nazism is a crime!” The German ambassador to Brazil, Heiko Thoms, wrote on Twitter on Thursday.
The diplomat condemned a “lack of respect for the victims of Nazism and its horrors.”
The Israel Embassy asked the authorities to “take the necessary measures to end this type of scandalous acts”, in a press release published on Thursday.
For its part, the Israelite Confederation of Brazil (Conib) described the images of “disgusting” and said that “Brazilian society cannot tolerate such positions”, in a note published on Wednesday.
Source: BFM TV
