Brazilian player Vinicius Junior’s accusation of racism against Argentine Gianluca Prestianni could lead to a change in Portugal’s legal system, in order to facilitate convictions for discrimination in the country. The offense, according to Vinicius, occurred in the match between Benfica and Real Madrid, last Tuesday (17), in Lisbon.
In December 2024, a coalition of more than 80 civil society organizations filed a project to criminalize various forms of discrimination in Portugal, including racism, homophobia and xenophobia. The country’s law allows groups of citizens to present projects to the Assembly of the Republic, the Portuguese Parliament, as long as they manage to gather 20,000 signatures.
After several comings and goings, at the beginning of this year there were still 4,000 supports left. With the repercussion of Vinicius Junior’s case, the coalition obtained another 8 thousand signatures, exceeding the target. As a result, the project should be sent to the Chamber of Deputies this week. If the ILC (Citizen’s Legislative Initiative) is accepted, deputies will be obliged to take it to the plenary for discussion.
“We have been following for a long time what Vinicius Junior has been suffering and doing in Spain, and we always thought that, when he played here, something like this could happen,” said Portuguese lawyer Anizabela Amaral. She is the coordinator of the legal area of GAC (Joint Action Group against Racism and Xenophobia in Portugal), the coalition that presented the ILC.
“The ideal situation would be to have an autonomous law to combat racism and discrimination, in the same way that there is a specific law against, for example, drug trafficking,” said Amaral. “In the current configuration of the Assembly of the Republic, however, we think it would be more viable to move forward with a proposal for specific changes.”
Portugal, unlike Brazil, does not directly criminalize racism. According to Amaral, punishing this type of act in the country is difficult because the Penal Code’s article on discrimination only provides for sanctions when it is committed “publicly” and in “publicity media”. The new proposal would remove these two requirements, which prevent the punishment of direct offenses.
Another law, on segregation for discriminatory reasons – preventing people from entering a restaurant or nightclub for racial or sexual orientation reasons, for example – only provides for punishment with a fine. The GAC proposes that this be considered an offense punishable by imprisonment.
A third change requested is that discrimination be considered aggravating in the crimes of insult, defamation and threat. In Portugal this is not provided for by law. It is up to the judges to increase the expected period of imprisonment within the criminal framework.
A famous case illustrates this characteristic of the legal system. In December 2022, a Portuguese woman made racist insults against two children, the children of Brazilian actors Giovanna Ewbank and Bruno Gagliasso. “The attacker ended up being convicted, but the aggravating factors were the subsequent offenses against police officers, not the racism itself,” stated Amaral.
For the lawyer, an exemplary conviction for racism by UEFA (Union of European Football Associations) can influence not only the public debate in Portugal but also the actions of the APCVD (Authority for the Prevention and Combat against Violence in Sport), the body responsible in the country for administrative sanctions in the various sports.
“The sports stands are a place where racism is expressed in Portugal,” said Amaral. “My son was an acrobatic gymnastics athlete and was the only one with dark skin to compete. Whenever he made a mistake in competitions, the comments were never technical, but always personal about his condition as a black boy.”
On Monday (23), UEFA decided to provisionally punish Prestianni with a one-game suspension for “prima facie rape” – which means that the body that governs European football considers, prima facie, that there may have been racism, although it has not concluded the investigations.
The same procedure was applied to Czech player Ondrej Kudela, who in 2021 was accused of making racist insults against an opponent. Initially, he suffered a one-match suspension. Days later, he received a ten-game penalty from UEFA, which prevented him from playing in the Euro – European Cup – for the Czech Republic.
Prestianni denies having offended Vinicius Junior, although there was at least one witness to the racist demonstration, the French player Kylian Mbappé, from Real Madrid. Benfica, Prestianni’s club, has been defending the Argentine athlete.
In the match in Portugal, Real Madrid won 1-0 with a goal from Vinicius Junior. The decisive match will be this Wednesday (25th), at 5pm.
