“Dirty Portuguese”. French politician convicted of insulting Portuguese-descendant mayor

Cédric de Oliveira was the target of insults after a meeting of the metropolitan council. Although the son of Portuguese parents did not file a complaint, the mayor was sentenced to a one-year suspended sentence and fined 12 thousand euros.

President of the Chamber of Fondettes and son of Portuguese parents, Cedric de Oliveira was insulted by the president of the Tours Metropolitan Area on April 4, 2023, after a “lit” meeting of the metropolitan council.

The position of Oliveira — who is also one of the vice-presidents of Frédéric Augis, the author of the insults — in relation to the approval of the budget will have angered the president of the Val de Loire region, in France, according to Correio da Manhã.

The Frenchman went so far as to say that Oliveira is nothing more than a small vice-president or a “sale Portugais”, words that can be translated into “dirty Portuguese“.

“You are nothing more than a small vice president. You are nothing more than a dirty Portuguese”, said the French mayor.

Frédéric Augis was interrogated at the Tours police station eight months after the incident, according to France Bleu, and has now been sentenced to one year suspended sentence It is fined 12 thousand euros — of which four thousand are suspended.

The insult constitutes “a public insult based on race, ethnicity, nation or religion”, justified the court that sentenced the president of Tours, who highlighted that Augis “damaged the reputation of the institution he presides over and did not fulfill his duty to set an example” .

Although Oliveira did not file a complaint against the mayor “so as not to harm the functioning of the institutions” — he only issued an open letter, which prompted an apology from the convicted man —, SOS Racismo and LICRA presented, for “racist insults”.

Tours Metropolitan Area politicians also demanded the dismissal from Augis. “We cannot accept having someone at the head of a local executive who has been convicted of statements that violate the law”, they confessed.

Filipe Pousos, mayor of La Riche and also of Portuguese origin, also believes that Augis is unable to continue in office. PS deputy Paulo Pisco, elected by the European circle, sent, according to the CM, an open letter to the French ambassador in Lisbon against “racist aggression”.

“This insult hurt me deeply”, confessed Cédric in a statement released after the sentence was announced on April 11, in which he recalled that it also affected a large number of his fellow citizens”.

“There can be no complacency with racism or any other form of discrimination”, warned the Portuguese descendant. “Such comments have no place anywheremuch less at the headquarters of a local authority which is supposed to be precisely the place where republican values ​​are expressed”