“We have three complaints, and they have been forwarded to the Public Prosecutor’s Office as I believe they may constitute a criminal offense,” stated Isabel Rodrigues, noting that the CICDR does not have the authority to handle criminal matters.
In question are posters from Chega presidential candidate André Ventura, containing messages targeting specific communities, including one stating, “Gypsies must obey the law,” and another reading, “This is not Bangladesh,” which began appearing in public spaces late last week.
The former socialist deputy mentioned that the complaints were filed by citizens on Monday and Tuesday and were forwarded on Tuesday to the Attorney General.
“It is not for me to determine whether there is a criminal matter, but since there is a possibility of such, as per Article 240, I believed it was appropriate to forward it to the Attorney General for assessment,” Isabel Rodrigues explained.
Article 240 of the Penal Code addresses discrimination and incitement to hatred and violence, targeting those who “found or constitute organizations or propagate activities that incite or encourage discrimination, hatred, or violence against a person or group based on ethnic-racial origin, nationality, religion, color, descent, territory, religion, language, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, sexual characteristics, and physical or mental disabilities.”
The CICDR president noted that if the Assembly of the Republic had already regulated the law underpinning the organization and if operations were functional, the CICDR could also “assess if there is any administrative offense.”
According to Isabel Rodrigues, this is not feasible, as the CICDR “lacks the capacity to handle administrative offenses because the president can only initiate the process. The processing falls under the service’s jurisdiction, which are not in place due to the lack of regulatory law.”
Isabel Rodrigues further admitted that the regulation of the CICDR might not occur soon due to the Assembly of the Republic’s current focus on discussing the State Budget for 2026.
