An email from the address po*************@***il.com, signed by former PS deputy and independent candidate for the Porto district council Carlos Brás, was sent to hundreds of collaborators whose email addresses are part of the Municipal Chamber’s database, stated Luís Filipe Araújo.
“From the initial discussions with the legal department’s technicians [of the municipality], it seems clear that there is an immediate violation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and this notification will be made to the National Data Protection Commission, and we will also report it to the Public Prosecutor,” he explained.
When asked by Lusa if the complaint would be against candidate Carlos Brás, the mayor clarified that it is “against whoever sent the email,” citing ignorance of whether the “candidacy has already been formalized.”
“It is against the author of the communication,” he insisted.
To Lusa, Carlos Brás confirmed sending the email but denied the accusation, stating that he sent it “to a few dozen of the municipality’s collaborators” who were part of his personal database.
“I did not access any database from the Gondomar Chamber, nor do I have the means to,” noted Carlos Brás, expressing that he is “completely at ease” regarding the complaint to the Public Prosecutor.
The email, accessed by Lusa and signed by Carlos Brás, begins with a recollection of working with the majority for six years “always with dialogue, proximity, and respect.”
Further down, the email’s author mentions receiving “accounts of very undemocratic attitudes from some political leaders towards employees,” adding that “the same has occasionally occurred in the broader Gondomar society.”
Considering it “astonishing and regrettable that, for some, 51 years after April 25, it is so difficult to accept freedom,” the author urges “consideration, calmness, and tranquility among employees, and as citizens, they should consider what is best for the territory, the people, and the future.”
“The vote is secret. Yours too,” it reads.
The email concludes with Carlos Brás stating that most employees know him and are aware that he does not make “empty promises” and that “if it’s to be done, it gets done.”
Via email to employees, the municipal president expressed “strong condemnation of the abusive sending” of the email, considering the act not only a serious GDPR infringement but also a manifest example of public degradation, describing the content as “slanderous and irresponsible.”
