Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was greeted with cheers and taunts as he traveled to a small Italian town on Monday to obtain honorary citizenship.

Bolsonaro’s great-grandfather was born in Anguillara Veneta, a town of 4,200 inhabitants in the Veneto region. Tensions have been mounting since its far-right mayor, Alessandra Buoso, approved the granting of honorary citizenship to the far-right leader.

Protesters last week spray-painted the town hall wall with the words “Bolsonaro Out” while the bishop of the nearby city of Padua described honorary citizenship as “a great embarrassment”.

Bolsonaro arrived in Anguillara Veneta after attending the G20 summit in Rome, where he was filmed walking around the city’s cultural sites and tasting the food.

He was greeted with cheers from supporters who had wrapped themselves in the Brazilian flag, while around 200 protesters held banners saying “Justice for the Amazon” and “No citizenship for dictators”. The visit comes days after Brazilian senators recommended that Bolsonaro face criminal charges for more than 600,000 Covid-19 deaths in the country.

Andrea Zanoni, environmental adviser in the Veneto region for the center-left Democratic Party, was among the protesters.

Zanoni said honorary citizenship was an “incomprehensible choice” amid accusations of “crimes against humanity” against Bolsonaro and his “infamous” handling of the pandemic.

“But not only that: Bolsonaro’s policies are a disaster for the planet,” Zanoni said. “He laid the red carpet for the multinationals that are devastating the Amazon and dismantled environmental controls. Bolsonaro’s policies are dangerous not only for Brazil but for the whole world. “

ANPI, an Italian anti-fascist organization, called the visit and citizenship “shameful”.

Buoso, of the far-right League party, defended the decision, saying the decision was not a vote on Bolsonaro’s policy but a recognition of Italians who had emigrated to Brazil, like the great-great- father of Bolsonaro, Vittorio, who was 10 when his family emigrated. in Brazil.

The Italian press reported that accommodation for Bolsonaro and his entourage cost the city council around € 10,000 (£ 8,500).

Police later used water cannons to disperse 500 protesters who allegedly tried to break a security cordon outside St. Anthony’s Basilica in Padua, where Bolsonaro surrendered after Anguillara Veneta.

Bolsonaro’s approval ratings fell ahead of his 2022 re-election campaign, largely due to the number of coronavirus deaths in the country, which is the second highest in the world. Last week, Brazil’s Senate committee formally approved a report calling on prosecutors to try Bolsonaro on charges ranging from quackery and incitement to crime to abuse of public funds and crimes against humanity.