Councilwoman is impeached for repudiating gesture by Bolsonarists – 02/04/2023 – Politics

The City Council of São Miguel do Oeste, in Santa Catarina, removed councilwoman Maria Tereza Capra (PT) early this Saturday (4) for criticizing a gesture considered Nazi made by coup demonstrators during a blockade of a road in the city in November.

By 10 votes to 1, the councilors considered that Maria Tereza had broken parliamentary decorum by, according to the inquiry commission’s report, “spreading false news and attributing to the citizens of Santa Catarina and the municipality the crime of giving a Nazi salute and being cradle of neo-Nazi cell”.

Members of the MDB, PSD, PP, PL and PDT voted against the councilor. The only favorable vote was from the PT itself. Councilwoman Cris Zanatta (PSDB), who missed the session, and the mayor, Vagner Passos (without a party), who would only take a position in the event of a tie, did not vote.

Maria Tereza was suspended for her comment on a social network about demonstrators blocking the SC-163 highway in São Miguel do Oeste, a municipality with 41,000 inhabitants 660 km from Florianópolis. The group, while singing the national anthem, made a gesture reminiscent of the Nazi salute “Sieg Heil”, which means “save the victory”.

“Moreover, these demonstrators still gave a Nazi salute. They raised their hands in that position. This is repeating one of the most dramatic moments. I would say the worst drama that the world’s population has experienced, which was Nazism. Millions of Jews, millions of people were killed in the name of race improvement,” she wrote.

“And Santa Catarina is the birthplace of the neo-Nazi cell in that country. São Miguel do Oeste has just been identified as a neo-Nazi cell. And those people, wearing the colors of our green and yellow flag, demonstrating in front of the Army barracks in the beards of the authorities . And they still do it by blocking a federal highway. They still do a Nazi salute.”

A month earlier, the Civil Police of Santa Catarina had arrested six people on suspicion of being part of a neo-Nazi group. Arrest and search warrants were served in the municipalities of Florianópolis, Joinville, Maravilha, São José and São Miguel do Oeste.

The images of the coup plotters were published on social networks and repudiated by entities such as Conib (Israeli Confederation of Brazil). The entity classified the images as “disgusting” and asked that they be “investigated and condemned by the authorities and by society as a whole”.

However, the following day, the state Public Ministry concluded that the gesture was not intended to exalt Nazism. According to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the demonstrators had been called upon by the announcer of the event, a local businessman, to place his hand on the shoulder of the person in front. Or, if there weren’t, for them to extend their arm, in order to “emanate positive energies”.

The councilor deleted the publication after receiving threats and had to leave the city temporarily. The House then passed a motion to repudiate the councilwoman.

Maria Tereza, 53, faced two complaints with similar content. One presented by the lawyer Brendo Luiz de Pizzol Barroso and the other by 13 people with a petition with 1,266 signatures.

According to the text of one of the complaints considered by the councilors, “even knowing that the gestures were not a matter of apology for Nazism, the councilor used her social network Instagram to spread false news and attribute to the citizens of São Miguel do Oeste the crime of ‘Nazi salute’ and being ‘cradle of neo-Nazi cells’.”

The text blames the councilor for making the municipality “be known as the land of Nazis”.

In this second complaint, there was also a second accusation, referring to the conviction of the councilor for hiring artistic shows without bidding when she was municipal secretary of Culture, in 2010.

In her defense before the vote, Maria Tereza said that her text remained on the air for just one hour and was deleted after threats and curses. She also highlighted that her social network has only 1,800 followers.

“Not everything that seems, is. But everything that is, seems. When we see a gesture like the one that was mentioned, and that so shocked the Jewish community, the people of the whole country, it wasn’t me who recorded that video, which I spread that video. I made a comment on my Instagram with 1,800 followers and it was on the air for an hour and then I removed it. The amount of insurgencies, threats, curses I received was scary. That’s why I removed it, “she said.

The councilwoman described the threats she has been suffering since the episode and said she had been out of town for three months.

“Some people can pretend they don’t know. But many do, they saw it on social media, in Bolsonarist groups, talking to each other, threatening. On the social network of the Chamber of Councillors, [comentários] saying that impeachment was not enough, councilor Maria Tereza had to be eliminated.”

He said that it is necessary to know the role of the politician “in the democratic State of Law”. “And we, as mothers and fathers, what is our role, and how much are we going to defend people’s right to exist, resist and diverge.”

On Wednesday (1st), the Minister of Human Rights and Citizenship, Silvio Almeida, announced that he would include the councilwoman in the Program for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, Communicators and Environmentalists because he understands that she is a victim of political violence. The federal program will be able to offer escort, physical security, risk mapping and expansion of the local protection network.