Member of Novo becomes a defendant for filming an event with Manuela d’Ávila

The Electoral Court of São Paulo made former candidate for state deputy Lucas Pavanato (Novo-SP) a defendant for alleged gender-based political violence, which he allegedly committed against left-wing women in last year’s election, including former deputies from the PCdoB Manuela d’Ávila and Isa Penna. Pavanato, who is an influencer linked to conservative issues, received 36,000 votes as a Novo candidate in last year’s elections and was a substitute.

The conviction refers to a complaint filed by the former president of the National Union of Students (UNE) Carina Vitral for a video recorded during a debate on “gender political violence”, in April 2022 at the Pontifical Catholic University (PUC) of São Paul.

According to the complaint, Pavanato allegedly embarrassed women present at the event, filming them and making provocations. Afterwards, she posted the video on her social networks. The representation, supported by the Public Ministry, was accepted by electoral judge Paulo Eduardo de Almeida Sorci.

“The signs of authorship and materiality arise from the documentation displayed, notably the link referring to the video made by the accused, in order to reveal, at least in this procedural phase, the existence of just cause for the initiation of the criminal action”, says the magistrate .

In the video published by the then pre-candidate, last year, he does not make any offense, just questions the women who were present at the event about their positions in relation to abortion and criticizing feminist agendas.

When trying to question former deputy Manuela d’Ávila, she rebuffed the question and insulted Pavanato, calling him a “little coconut”. Some men and women began to attack the boy with criticism of his political position. In one of the scenes, a group of women shout “take care, you sexist. Latin America is going to be all feminist.”

“This is how these people’s democracy works. They can’t stand answering questions, but we will always be exposing these hypocrisies and showing the privileges they pretend not to have”, says Pavanato at the end of the video.

The crime of political gender violence, attributed to Pavanato, was created by a law approved in 2021. Under the law, it was considered a crime to “harass, embarrass, humiliate, persecute or threaten, by any means, a candidate for an elected position or holder of a mandate elective, using contempt or discrimination against the condition of women or their color, race or ethnicity, with the purpose of preventing or hindering their electoral campaign or the performance of their elective mandate”. The punishment is up to four years in prison and a fine. If the violence occurs online and on social media, the sentence can be up to six years.

After learning of the court’s decision, Pavinato wrote on the X network: “Manuela d’Ávila called me ‘cocozinho’ for asking the price of her book and I was the one who became a defendant in court. Brazil, the country where the pole pisses in the dog.”