MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Bolsonaro's Freudian slip: he said Jim Carrey when he meant John Kerry

“We almost went out to dance” with Angela Merkel, said Bolsonaro

One is US President Joseph Biden's climate envoy and a former Secretary of State as well as a losing candidate to the presidency - John Kerry. The other is a comedy actor who usually plays funny roles, some of them in colourful makeup, Jim Carrey.

In psychoanalysis, a Freudian slip, also called parapraxis, is an error in speech, memory, or physical action that occurs due to the interference of an unconscious subdued wish or internal train of thought.

Whatever the explanation, Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro said he had talked with “Jim Carrey” while in Rome for the G20 Summit. Bolsoinaro's slip of the tongue came during a TV interview that went viral Tuesday.

“I spoke with Jim Carrey about some reserved things, sorry that I cannot talk about it with you, I told him that we do not want resources from the United States, we need to deepen our agreements, there is interest on our part in intelligence,” Bolsonaro explained.

“I did not get to talk to Joe Biden, it seems that he is very reserved with everyone, he talks very little, he is very different from (Donald) Trump, but we are interested in a policy of an ever-closer relationship with the United States, a continuity of those we did with Trump,” he added.

Bolsonaro insisted a rapprochement with Biden would lead to the build-up of a ”north-south” axis and “thus we would be a great partner (of the United States), in the end, our countries complement each other.”

The President's apparent mistake led to the circulation on social media this week of memes calling Bolsonaro a “liar, liar,” which is the name of a movie starring Carrey. But was it a mistake? Bolsonaro has admitted he wanted to talk to Biden. If instead, all he could have was Kerry, calling him after a clownish actor carried an unspoken, probably unconscious message. Others speak of a “presidential gaffe.”

But the interview went on. “If there is a problem with Venezuela, imagine if Brazil took a left turn, it would be the end of South America. We want to defend democracy,” he added at a time when his image is at its lowest and polls show him as losing his reelection bid in 2022.

When asked about his conversation with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, he replied: “It was excellent, it started in the afternoon (Saturday) when we were in a room, I took a step back and ended up stepping on her foot, she looked at me and He said 'it could only be you'. She already knew me a lot, I'm not a rude guy, I'm a straightforward guy ”.

“At night fate wanted me to stay close to her, she called me to talk for 30 minutes, we almost went out to dance, one passionate about the other,” said Bolsonaro.