The plenary of the São Paulo City Council approved today (24) the admissibility of the process of impeachment of councilor Camilo Cristófaro (Avante), accused of racism. With the approval, which counted on the votes of 51 councilors – out of 53 voters, the process goes back to the Corregedoria so that the witnesses and the defense of the parliamentarian can be heard.
On the 3rd, Camilo Cristófaro participated remotely in a session of the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPI) on Applications, at the São Paulo City Council. As the councilman’s microphone was open, an audio of his speech with another person ended up leaking to the meeting: “it’s a black thing, right?”, was the phrase heard during the session. Four councilors opened representation against Cristófaro.
“It would be nice if we didn’t have to vote on a measure of this nature. But, faced with the practice of racism, we can only apply the law to show the society of this country that racism is and will be punished here”, said the mayor, councilor Milton Leite.
Last week, the Internal Affairs of the Chamber approved the opening of the process against the councilor. According to the opinion of the body, prepared by councilor Elaine Mineiro, of the collective mandate Quilombo Periférico (Psol), the speech is clearly racist, “feeder of structures that keep the black population in a position of incompetence and inferiority, being offensive to an indeterminate set of people, raping all black people.”
Councilor denies racism
The report sought councilor Camilo Cristófaro, but has not yet received a response. On the 20th, the councilor denied to Agência Brasil that he had been racist and referred to the episode as a “joke”. “I’m not racist. Seventy percent of those who accompany me are Afros. It was an unfortunate joke with one of them, my brother at heart and that, even though he has been my friend for decades, I recognize: I was unhappy, but never racist,” he said.
