The parliamentary leader of the PS, Eurico Brilhante Dias, confirmed this Friday, April 17, that the socialists asked the Constitutional Court to preventively monitor the amendment to the Penal Code that is associated with the new version of the Nationality Law, two legislative initiatives that were approved by the entire parliamentary right.
Lamenting the “unfortunate concession of the PSD to the extreme right”, Brilhante Dias referred to the change in the Penal Code that creates the additional penalty of loss of nationality, whereby citizens who have become naturalized Portuguese lose this right if they are convicted of committing serious crimes. “It creates a different sanctioning framework for Portuguese men and women”, he argued.
Regarding the Nationality Law, highlighting the contribution of the socialist bench to respond to the unconstitutionalities highlighted by the STF in the version approved last year, Brilhante Dias said that it is not included in the request for preventive inspection sent to the judges at Palácio Ratton.
Eurico Brilhante Dias also said that there was no decision on the candidacy for the Ombudsman’s Office, claiming that less than 24 hours had passed since the election of professor at the Faculty of Law of Lisbon Tiago Antunes, former Deputy Secretary of State to the Prime Minister and for European Affairs in António Costa’s governments, failed – and accused by the Liberal Initiative of having been part of the “machine for intoxication and manipulation of public opinion during the executives of José Sócrates.
Despite this, the PS parliamentary leader dismissed the idea that Tiago Antunes lacked votes among socialist deputies, saying that “the numbers speak for themselves” and being proud of having “a cohesive bench”. On Thursday, after the result of the vote was known, in which the candidate for ombudsman had only 104 votes in favor, less than the sum of null and blank votes, and far short of the two-thirds majority he needed.
Leave a Reply