At that time he had just said to Chancellor Angela Merkel that he was not as bad as people would say and now that G20 summit reported. According to an article in the Brazilian newspaper O Globo, TV journalist Leonardo Monteiro of TV Globo was punched and poked in the stomach by Bolsonaro’s security guards. He asked why Bolsonaro did not take part in the G20 events in Rome on Sunday.
A video recorded by another journalist shows chaotic scenes with security forces harassing the press and Bolsonaro supporters berating the journalists. It is still unclear whether the security forces were Brazilians or Italians. The Bolsonaros office and the press team at the G20 summit have not yet responded to inquiries.
The weekend in Rome went badly for Bolsonaro. Videos from G20 events showed him as an isolated figure. He was missing from the photo taken at the Trevi Fountain with the heads of state and government. On the streets of Rome, he was loudly criticized for his handling of the pandemic in his country and called by critics as a “genocide”. More than 600,000 people have died of Covid-19 in Brazil, the second highest number in the world after the United States.