On November 3, the president of Fundação Getulio Vargas, Carlos Ivan Simonsen Leal, met with the German ambassador to Brazil, Heiko Thoms, and the European country’s consul general in Rio de Janeiro, Dirk Augustin, and gave them a tour of the new building of the School of Communication, Media and Information (FGV ECMI).

The guests also watched a presentation about a project under way at FGV ECMI, supported by Germany’s Foreign Ministry and the German Embassy in Brasilia, about social media’s impact on democracy and ways to strengthen it.

The visit was also attended by embassy aide Emil Richter; FGV board members Cristiano Buarque Franco Neto, Aldo Floris and Gilberto Prado; the vice president of FGV, Professor Clóvis de Faro; and FGV directors/deans Marieta de Moraes, Cesar Camacho and

Sidnei Gonzalez. FGV ECMI’s team was represented by dean Marco Aurelio Ruediger, vice dean Ana Guedes and project coordinator Amaro Grassi. The Ernane Galvêas Building, which used to house the German Consulate in Rio de Janeiro but now belongs to FGV, was also toured.

The visit was part of FGV ECMI’s Digital Democracy Project, which is supported by the German Embassy in Brasilia. This initiative, which is focused on studying the digitalization of democracy, is now in its third year, carrying out studies, events and political analyses.