Brazil's culture secretary fired after 'coincidentally' quoting Goebbels

Issued on: 17/01/2020 - 18:19
Modified: 17/01/2020 - 18:19



Brazil’s Culture Secretary Roberto Alvim was fired after being accused of echoing Nazi Germany propagandist Joseph Goebbels in a speech published on social media on January 16, 2020. © Screengrab of video released by the Brazilian government
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FRANCE 24

Brazil’s Secretary of Culture Roberto Alvim was fired Friday, after being accused of paraphrasing Nazi Germany’s propaganda chief, Joseph Goebbels, in a speech on the government’s vision of the Brazilian arts.

The video, released on Thursday announcing national prizes to revitalise the arts in Brazil, quickly went viral, attracting outrage after the national daily O Globo pointed to the speech's at times word-for-word similarity to Goebbels' rhetoric.

Alvim, a born-again Christian and a theatre director appointed last year by Brazil's far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, announced the prize as music played in the background from an opera by Wagner, Hitler’s favourite composer.

“Brazilian art of the next decade will be heroic and it will be national... and imperative because it will be rooted in the urgent aspirations of our people, or it will be nothing,” Alvim says in the video.

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https://www.france24.com/en/20200117-brazil-s-culture-secretary-fired-after-coincidentally-quoting-goebbels