Council Protests Against Michelle Bolsonaro’s Occupation of Presidential Library

RIO DE JANEIRO – The Federal Council of Libraries will demand from the Comptroller General of the Union (CGU) responsibility for the risk of damage and loss to the Presidential Library collection, containing 42,000 works and 3,000 presidential speeches.

The first reaction came from the 1st Region Council, which stated that documents and historical records in the Presidential Library are in serious danger.

The body reacted in protest against the reduction of space and the fact that many books are now improperly stacked in the Planalto’s hallways. The books have been displaced as the result of a project to house the new office of First Lady Michelle Bolsonaro.

In addition, the Federal Library Council sent a letter to the CGU requesting that the library be preserved.

“With no concern for this centenary institution, which holds the records of all our country’s Presidents, with an up-to-date collection of over 33,000 volumes, they have decided to reduce the space by half, closing up the collection and removing all living, studying and reading areas that were accessible to the population,” criticized the Council’s management.

The area will be refurbished to house the First Lady’s advisors for the Pátria Voluntária (Voluntary Homeland) Program – they formerly held a recently refurbished office in the Ministry of Citizenship – which cost more than R$300,000 (US$75,000) in public funds. However, the structure is now to be relocated to the Planalto so that the First Lady may work closer to the President.

The amount of spending on reforming the space in Annex I of the Planalto Palace is not yet known. “But the damage to the country’s heritage is already known, it will be high,” says Council President Fábio Lima Cordeiro, librarian.

The body points out that “the presidential libraries in all countries act as institutions that aim to preserve the memory and legacy of the time of an incumbent president. They are open to the public and make a government’s records available to researchers, historians, and anyone interested in knowing how that government worked, regardless of any partisan or ideological issue”.

The Library of the Presidency of the Republic of Brazil gathers and documents government and historical records, speeches and official photos of former Brazilian presidents.

Banana and nonsense

Faced with the controversy, President Bolsonaro said that the press “worries about nonsense” and that “no book will be thrown out with the alterations in the library”.

“No book will be thrown out, everything will remain there. The First Lady works for free for the whole of Brazil. Instead of praising, you criticize,” he said.

Bolsonaro repeated the gesture of handing a banana to the press when discussing the matter. “The library has shrunk a little, so they’re criticizing because it’s going to shrink, instead of praising the First Lady”, he added. “Anyone behaving this way deserves another banana.”

Source: Congresso em Foco, UOL

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