The two diplomas relating to the Nationality Law will arrive in the next few days to President Antonio José Seguro. António Leitão Amaro, at the Council of Ministers press conference this afternoon, April 9, declared that will not “condition the position of the President of the Republic” on the future of the texts.
But specifically, it assessed that the diploma “it is constitutionally robust” and that this is “the assessment of everyone, including those who voted against the law”. Approval occurred last week, with votes to the right of Parliament.
The minister stated that the unconstitutionalities identified in the law were “practically all introduced by Parliament” in the specialty phase and were not included in the Government’s proposal. “In the nationality law, the reasons for unconstitutionality will have disappeared, that is, between what the Constitutional Court has already validated and what it identified difficulties, but solutions were found that are considered robust”, claimed the minister.
Regarding the change in the Penal Code, Leitão Amaro stated that the Constitution “always provided for the possibility of loss of nationality” and that, now, what is intended is to define the terms. “The idea of deprivation of nationality, of citizenship, is in the Constitution. The concrete terms will be defined by the legislator”these.
The two texts were approved with votes from the PSD, CDS-PP, IL and Chega, in negotiations that took place until the last minute. The previous version had rules rejected by the Constitutional Court (TC). The PS is still evaluating whether will request inspection of the constitutionality of the diploma on loss of nationality, rejecting a request regarding the other diploma. António José Seguro’s position on the matter is not yet known.
Among the changes approved in the legislation is the exclusion of the possibility of requesting Portuguese nationality through babies born in Portugal and five years of residence with a residence permit will be required for babies born in the country to have the right to Portuguese nationality.
It will also rise from five to seven years of residence time with title to have the right to apply for nationality in the case of citizens of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP), and ten years for others. Another change is the end of the special regime for descendants of Sephardic Jews.
*With Lusa
amanda.lima@dn.pt
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