The most humble president in the world receives this huge offer for his VW Beetle
If there’s anything to look up to in this world, it’s a president who actually cares so much that he chooses to live a modest and humble life – and drive a 1987 Volkswagen Beetle.
The Guardian reported that the man once nicknamed “the poorest president in the world”, Jose Mujica, told the Uruguayan weekly Busqueda that an Arab sheik offered $1m for the humble car.
When asked about the reported offer at a news conference, Mujica, who is standing down as president, said: “That’s what they said to me, but I didn’t give it any importance.”
Mujica, a former leftist guerrilla leader, said that if he got $1m for the car, he would donate the money to a scheme for the homeless. If he got trucks for it, he said, they could go to Uruguay’s public health office or his campaign workers.
The president said he would gladly auction the Beetle because he has “no commitment to cars” and he joked that he did not sell it because of his dog Manuela, famous for only having three legs.
When he was asked why someone would pay a fortune for his little car, Mujica said: “Human beings have a bit of fetishism; we need certain material symbols.” He noted that he keeps a hammer and shovel that belonged to his father. “They are little things to the world, but are worth a lot to you.”
Mujica gained world’s renown when he assumed Uruguay’s presidency in 2010 and declared that his entire wealth amounted to the 1987 Beetle. The ramshackle farm he lives on was in his wife’s name. Since then, in his official declarations of wealth, he has included the farm and he has been earning about R120 000 a month as president, of which he donates a big percentage to his political movement.