Researcher Boaventura de Sousa Santos revealed on Friday that he had filed a complaint against the management of the Centre for Social Studies in Coimbra and that he had asked the Public Prosecutor’s Office to name him as a defendant in the investigation opened following the report of the independent commission.

In an interview with the Lusa agency, the sociologist explained that the legal action against the management of the Center for Social Studies (CES) of Coimbra was brought About a month agoin order to obtain access to documents and evidence that may allegedly exist against him.

Currently, the request for access to the documents is pending. This is not a condemnation of the CES management, but rather an obligation to make the documents of the whistleblowers, that broke the anonymity“, he clarified.

Three researchers who worked at the CES reported situations of harassment in a chapter of the book entitled Sexual misconduct in academia: Towards an ethics of care in the universitywhich led to researchers Boaventura de Sousa Santos and Bruno Sena Martins being suspended from all positions they held at the CES in April 2023.

The CES ended up creating, a few months later, an independent commission to investigate the allegationshaving published its report almost a year later, on March 13, which confirmed the existence of patterns of conduct of abuse of power and harassment, by people in senior positions, without specifying names.

According to the report subsequently submitted to the independent commission, 14 people were reported, for 32 whistleblowersin a total of 78 complaints.

A week later, a group of 13 women, in a document signed by all of them, urged the Portuguese judicial authorities to urgently investigate the alleged criminal conduct mentioned in the report.

If the justification for not testifying was that the complaints were anonymous and it was necessary to respect anonymity, these complainants did not respect anonymity because they gave their name and, therefore, There is no longer anonymity”At least in these cases, the statements should be accessible,” said Boaventura de Sousa Santos.

According to the professor, director emeritus of this organization, access to these statements is essential to know what he is accused of and, thus, to be able to defend himself.

On this day of our interview [quinta-feira]I ask the Public Prosecutor to make him a defendant, so that he can be investigated. I do this because I am calm, I am innocent and I know it. I can prove my innocence“.

Only by becoming a defendant, he argued, will he be able to access the alleged accusations that have been made against him.

Otherwise, I have no access to them. I was forced to ask to be accused and I do so with all my might. virility“, he added.

Boaventura de Sousa Santos also told Lusa that he is taking legal action against all those who have put his fundamental right to a good name at risk.

My good name and reputation were attacked and so was my health.: they were called into question in a practically irreversible way. I was lynched in the public square: it was what we could call a defamation,” he lamented.

According to the sociologist, all those who contributed to his name being “put into doubt without proof, without documents and without justification” will be the target of these actions.

This has not been done anywhere in the world, in the public square, for so long and in such a unpunished. This without there having been an internal disciplinary process in the institution. [CES]”, held.

Boaventura took the opportunity to refer to a case of harassment that occurred at another university institution and which was made public at the same time, but in which the identity of those involved was not disclosed.

Internal committees were created and it was resolved. That was not what was decided at my Center: it was to let my reputation, which is not only national, it is international, was put into doubt and deeply affected during all this time,” he concluded.

Boaventura de Sousa Santos denies accusations and claims innocence

The sociologist denied the accusations of harassment made against him and said he is innocent and is in a position to prove it in a place where he can defend himself.

Toward the accusations are falseYes, and I am in good condition to be able to prove it, but I have to prove it in a place where it is possible to defend myself,” he said in an interview with the Lusa agency.

“For 15 months, They attack me based on this chapter. [do livro] and then in everything that followed. I am attacked in the press and on social media, without ever being able to defend myself, because It is not in the public square that we can investigate such serious issues.“, said Boaventura de Sousa Santos.

The sociologist considered that he was involved more than a year ago”in a media war“where in the first week a “reputation assassination” took place.

I don’t think that’s where a person should defend themselves, so I’ve been waiting, all this time, in silence. I really always thought that it was in the institutions where I should defend myself and where this issue should be addressed.“, he justified.

Boaventura de Sousa Santos stated that During these 15 months he was never heard by the management, scientific council or general assembly of the CES, nor by the courts, in this issue.

He was not heard before the independent commission until December 4, 2023, where he handed over “some 600 pages of documents” and the names of several witnesses who “were never heard.”

The report released by the independent commission makes a sociological diagnosis, but “never speaks of victims”, only of “those accused and those who accuse”, pointing out “contradictions, making a general diagnosis and proposing solutions for the future”.

I thought it was all over there, but a few minutes before the report was published, the CES’s scientific and management board published a letter apologizing to the victims, boycotting and contradicting what was in the Commission’s report, with a unilateral reading that sought to validate the complainants’ story and not with the impartiality that was necessary at the time,” he said, accusing the CES of “bad faith.”

According to Boaventura de Sousa Santos, the harassment allegations had “a terrible impact” on his personal life, his reputation and “in the area of ​​invitations.”

It was a brutal attack on my international reputation, which led to cancellations,” especially “after the mistake that wasn’t a mistake after all“.

“It was a malicious intention to turn my self-suspension into a suspension. It was not my self-suspension that caused the cancellations, it was saying that I was suspended, because when a person is suspended it is because there is suspicion of something,” he said.

He also told Lusa that he had no doubts that you will be able to clear your namesince he trusts in Portuguese justice and in the accusatory system.

I trust in justice and I am turning to it at this moment. The good name of one of the best-known social scientists in the Portuguese-speaking world cannot be questioned.destroy their reputation as has been done in Portugal in the last 15 months, in a unpunished”, he concluded.

There was a “coup d’état” at the Center for Social Studies in Coimbra

The professor even believes that there was a “coup d’état” at the Center for Social Studies in Coimbra.

Yeah [o CES] They were a political institution, I would say there was a coup d’état.with a democratic appearance. Obviously, I will not in any way question the legality of the board of directors and scientific council, which were democratically elected. But I question the legitimacy of scientific advicebecause it was the same as at that time [da denúncia] and they did not treat him impartially, they did not do it, and they are doing it this way to enforce that narrative which is the narrative of the complainants and not a narrative that is evaluated impartially.”

In this interview with the Lusa agency, Boaventura de Sousa Santos also said that he was made into a scapegoat and, in some way, as the origin of the evil of an “institution of excellence, of an inclusive institution.”

In 2020, the CES had 17% of the PhDs from the University of Coimbra. There is a study that shows that women are the majority in the management and coordination bodies of the CES. 81% of scientific production projects are carried out by women, 61% of the coordination of our projects is carried out by women. Therefore, we have a highly advanced and highly demanding inclusive institution.”

And this demand was defended by the researcher with 21 doctorates honoris causaIt meant that many were unable to follow the research created there.

Boaventura de Sousa Santos therefore finds two main reasons for this “coup d’état” and for these media accusations directed at him.

My own scientific orientation is not to the liking of many people within the CES. But the CES has always been a space where pluralism was respected. And this outrages me and is an extremely worrying situation.”

The sociologist also recalled being a public intellectual, but a left-wing public intellectual.

We all know it, but I have no church or party. Therefore, I am an easy target for a media war, because I feel uncomfortable in my independent positions.. Since the war broke out in Ukraine, I have always been critical of it. I have always been in favour of independence. That is why I criticised and defended peace. But, at the moment, in Portugal, fighting for peace is almost an insult, because really, as you can see in the news, it is about the state budgets increasing their military spending.”

However, he argued, if investments are allocated to military spending, they are not allocated to education, health, pensions or the well-being of populations.

“We are fueling an endless war and aligning ourselves with a war that could be nuclear, that could be destructive for the human species itself,” he warned.

And for that, he admitted, he was insulted, by the media, but also on social networks.

There are many interests in Portugal, especially among right-wing and far-right groups. They are interested in silencing my voiceBut it is not easy, because my voice is international and I continue to publish my texts.”