The Social Democratic Party (PSD), one of the two partners in Portugal’s center-right government, reached an agreement this Wednesday (1st) with the Chega party to approve in Parliament a bill amended by the Executive that seeks to limit the granting of nationality.
“We reached an agreement with Chega and, honestly, I believe that today is a positive day for the country”, said the leader of the PSD parliamentary group, Hugo Soares, in statements to the press before the vote on the initiative in the unicameral Assembly of the Republic (Parliament).
Almost at the same time, Chega issued a statement, published by the local press, in which it confirmed that the agreement had been reached. Soares stated that the PSD negotiated with all parties, including the Socialist, which announced its rejection of the agenda.
At the end of October, Parliament approved a project that includes changes to the Nationality Law to make it more difficult to obtain a Portuguese passport and no longer automatically grant it to the children of migrants born in the country. At the same time, it authorized another text to modify the Penal Code in order to be able to withdraw nationality when serious crimes are committed.
After this vote, which advanced thanks to Chega’s votes, the Socialist Party asked the STF to review the initiative, and the court concluded that several articles were contrary to the Magna Carta.
Consequently, what is voted on this Wednesday in the chamber is a proposal amended by the government based on this initial text. Some of the changes introduced by the government affect the loss of nationality, which the amended text foresees will only affect people with double passports and sentenced to prison sentences equal to or greater than six years, whereas in the initial proposal it was four years.
This would only apply to crimes committed within the ten years following the acquisition of Portuguese nationality.
Another change that the government included at the request of the Constitutional Court is to increase the prison sentence in Portugal from two to five years, which would be enough to prevent access to Portuguese citizenship.
The amendment also specifies crimes that may prevent the granting of a Portuguese passport, such as terrorism, violent or organized crime, crimes against the State, assistance to illegal immigration, among others.
In recent days, Chega has changed its stance on several occasions regarding its support or not for the government’s modified proposal.
Soares indicated that crimes were introduced that Chega understood should justify not obtaining nationality, such as drug trafficking, and the deadlines were reduced to reach this agreement.
