Also worth mentioning is the signature of sociologist António Sousa Ribeiro, who succeeded BSS as director of CES (between 2018 and 2023) and is also referred to in the article in question as someone very close to the object of the manifesto and who, despite being aware of abuses (namely the situation that occurred with Isabella Gonçalves), would have done nothing. Sousa Ribeiro left CES in December 2024, along with several other senior researchers, after BSS itself had done the same the previous month.
It is worth remembering that after the publication of the article in the collection on harassment in academia, the CES management announced the creation of an independent commission to investigate the facts, which presented its report in March 2024. In this it concluded: “The analysis of all the information gathered, as well as the versions between the complaining people and the denounced people that were compatible with each other, indicate patterns of conduct of abuse of power and harassment by some people who held higher positions in the CES hierarchy”, and that reports of abuse had always been “treated as private matters between adults”.
Based on these conclusions, the center’s management issued an open letter apologizing to the victims and promising to take action in relation to those reported, with Tiago Santos Pereira, the director, announcing, when presenting the Commission’s report to journalists, that it had been sent to the Public Prosecutor’s Office (which, as mentioned, opened an investigation that is still ongoing).
Shortly afterwards, faced with the fact that BSS publicly announced that the commission’s report exonerated him, the Victims’ Collective published your sixth letterin which for the first time he revealed the names of victims and showed his willingness to make their specific stories publicly known.
“If we go down the path that everything is harassment…”
An internal investigation process followed at CES to determine whether there were grounds for disciplinary proceedings. It is following this process that BSS, which had “self-suspended” from all functions at CES in April 2023, announced in November 2024 its separation from the same, in an email sent to the entire CES universe, in which it accused the management of wanting to “expel” him and of carrying out “a lynching”.
“I was aware that the investigation process was completed, even though I had not been heard, nor had I had the opportunity to present my defense against formalized accusations”, the email read. “I cannot agree with this conduct of the management of the institution I created, which, unhappy with the report of the independent commission, promotes lynching, without evidence and without any concern for the truthby an internationally renowned researcher who, with his efforts and those of his collaborators, turned CES into one of the most prestigious scientific institutions in the world in the area of social sciences.”
In the same communication, BSS announced that it would make publicly available “all the documents that support my version of the facts” and that intends to “dedicate his strength to legal proceedings” and hopes “that one day the truth will speak louder.”
In March 2025, in an interview with CNN, he claimed authorship of a WhatsApp audio in which accused the CES management of causing cancer to her friend Maria Paula Meneses. “The defamation that she and I, in short, all of us, were victims of, the depression that the defamation caused her, is certainly a relevant cause for the cancer she has today”, can be heard in the said audio. “Therefore, the management of CES, the management of the Scientific Council [do CES]people like Tiago Santos Pereira, Marta Araújo, Ana Cordeiro Santos, Catarina Martins, Sara Araújo, Teresa Cunha [todas investigadoras do CES, e parte delas integrantes do Coletivo de Vítimas]among many others, will have a lifelong impact. They will die as unhappy as they lived (…).”
In the said interview, however, BSS, stating that he is “deeply wronged, deeply hurt”, denies any feelings of hatred: “Despite all this hurt, I think I can’t hate. (…) They [as mulheres que acusam] In some way, they are victims of the neoliberalism that has taken hold and it is a shame that they do not assume their responsibility, because this is typical of neoliberalism, it is transferring responsibilities to others.”
And, bragging about having been “lucky with women” — “he was considered an attractive person, being lucky with women is no crime” —, he assured that he never harassed anyone: “Harassment has to be insistent, it has to be about taking advantage, promising advantages to anyone, I’ve never insisted, no, for me it’s always been no and that’s often happened. Now if we go down the path that everything is harassment…”
In 2024, the sociologist filed a civil action, in defense of personality rights, against four women who publicly accused him of various forms of abuse within the scope of the CES, having asked the court to impose a “gag order” on the defendants, so that they were prevented from speaking about the process (the court refused this request). As already mentioned, more recently he filed a criminal complaint for defamation against the same women and nine other women, announcing that he had withdrawn from the civil action. To DN, however, one of the defendants in the civil action assured that it has not yet ended.