The Palácio da Alvorada, designed by famed architect Oscar Niemayer.
The Palácio da Alvorada, designed by famed architect Oscar Niemayer. Thum_Fel/CC BY-SA 2.0

Michel Temer, who is the president of Brazil, might have mounting political controversies and other problems, but, last week, he mentioned a new one: ghosts.

He was talking about the Palácio da Alvorada, where Brazilian presidents have lived since the 1950s. Temer recently moved out, as he explained to the Brazilian magazine Veja, because of “ghosts” (or maybe just general bad feelings about the place).

“I felt something strange there,” Temer said. “I wasn’t able to sleep right from the first night.”

Temer has since moved to Jaburu Palace, where Brazil’s vice presidents stay—Temer himself stayed there when he was vice president. Both homes were designed by the famed architect Oscar Niemeyer, a pioneering modernist who has no (known) ties with ghosts.