Who drank all the milk? Pundits make a meal of Bolsonaro's breakfast habits

[Judi Lynn]

The Brazilian president is partial to a humble tin of condensed milk – but did his government really need to spend $2.9m on it?


Tom Phillips in Rio de Janeiro
Wed 27 Jan 2021 16.11 EST

It is one of the linchpins of Jair Bolsonaro’s populist struggle to portray himself as a no-frills man of the people: a fist-sized tin of condensed milk costing about $0.80 a pop.

Since his shock 2018 election Brazil’s president has repeatedly appeared dousing his breakfast roll with the sugar-laden liquid – most famously during a morning meal with Donald Trump’s national security adviser, John Bolton.

But claims, later partially debunked, that the Bolsonaro administration last year spent 15.6m reais (£2.1m/$2.9m) on his favourite foodstuff have sparked a public outcry, with rivals and detractors blasting what they called the president’s immoderate eating habits.

“Those responsible must be punished!” the leftist Ciro Gomes thundered on Twitter, demanding a supreme court investigation into “Bolsonaro’s preposterous spending”.

Sâmia Bomfim, a socialist congresswoman, said Brazilians deserved to know how 7,200 cans of condensed milk might have been devoured each day. “Did the presidential family consume all this?” she wondered after the allegations were published by a news website called Metrópoles.

More:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/27/jair-bolsonaro-condensed-milk-brazil