In a letter addressed to José Pedro Aguiar-Branco, Eva Cruzeiro details an incident on October 29 during a hearing with Minister of the Presidency António Leitão Amaro, where immigration was under discussion.
“He shouted at me, go back to your country,” recounts the PS deputy. In her view, this incident warrants an inquiry by the Parliamentary Transparency Committee into Chega deputy Filipe Melo.
Filipe Melo is already the subject of another complaint in the same Transparency Committee, this one from socialist deputy Isabel Moreira, which has received a favorable ruling from the President of the Assembly of the Republic. In this case, Filipe Melo is accused of having made “disrespectful gestures, specifically, blowing kisses and making silence motions, in an alleged attempt to silence her.”
PS Deputy Isabel Moreira reported today that the Deputy Secretary of the Assembly of the Republic, Filipe Melo from Chega, “blew her kisses” during the plenary session, and the President of parliament stated that he would refer the matter to the Transparency Committee.
Eva Cruzeiro states her incident arose following her speech, which was countered by Chega’s parliamentary group leader Pedro Pinto, who unfoundedly accused her of delivering a hate speech.
“During and after [Pedro Pinto’s intervention], several Chega deputies made statements and displayed behaviors I believe warrant a detailed review of plenary session camera recordings. Further, there was one particularly evident and noticeable episode: Deputy Filipe Melo, a member of the Assembly’s board, visibly agitated, stood up and repeatedly insulted the PS bench. Specifically, he shouted at me: ‘go back to your country,’ accompanied by explicit gestures indicating my expulsion,” the young deputy narrates.
These words, she notes, confirmed in “real-time” her parliamentary assertions concerning “a worsening of racist and xenophobic discourse in public space, legitimized and spread by the far-right.”
Eva Cruzeiro asserts these events breach the principle of civility and institutional loyalty enshrined in Article 5 of the Deputies’ Code of Conduct, which requires deputies to intervene with civility and refrain from conduct that does not honor and respect the institution’s dignity.
According to the PS deputy, although Filipe Melo benefits from parliamentary immunity, as enshrined in the Constitution, “the acts in question are of such gravity that, in any other context outside parliamentary functions, could constitute criminal liability (…), penalizing acts of discrimination and incitement to hatred or violence based on race, color or ethnic and national origin.”
Eva Cruzeiro indicates that constitutionally, the remark “go back to your country,” when directed at a Portuguese citizen based on racial origin, “simultaneously violates the equality principle, as it denies full citizenship based on race; the right to personal identity, by questioning the national identity of the targeted citizen; and the foundation of human dignity, by treating her as a second-class citizen”.
“It is clear that the ‘go back to your country’ directed at me did not refer to Lisbon, where we were and where I was born, but to Africa, as happens whenever a black Portuguese person is attacked this way”, she clarifies.
For Eva Cruzeiro, “racism and xenophobia are unacceptable under any circumstances and continue to deeply and persistently affect thousands across the country, from childhood through life.”
“I request that this case be analyzed with the attention it requires, viewing it not just as an individual episode but as an expression of a problem the Assembly of the Republic has a moral and constitutional duty to reject and correct. It is incumbent on us, as representatives of the Portuguese people, to set the example that in Portugal, no manifestation of racism, xenophobia or any other form of discrimination is tolerated and that all victims of such attacks can count on the steadfast defense of the law, their representatives, and institutions,” she concludes.
