The dates for the dispatch of these decrees, both originating from a proposal by the PSD/CDS-PP Government and opposed by PS, Livre, PCP, BE, and PAN, are listed on the website of the Assembleia da República.
According to the Constitution, within eight days from the date of receiving the decrees, the President of the Republic can request a preventive review of the constitutionality of any of their norms. For organic laws, this can also be requested by the Prime Minister or one-fifth of the deputies – 46 out of 230.
For this purpose, Article 278 of the Constitution stipulates that “the President of the Assembleia da República, on the date of sending the decree to the President of the Republic for promulgation as an organic law, must inform the Prime Minister and the parliamentary groups of the Assembleia da República.”
The same article states that “the President of the Republic cannot promulgate the decrees” corresponding to organic laws “until eight days have passed after their reception or before the Constitutional Tribunal has ruled on them, if its intervention has been requested.”
The two decrees sent today to the Palácio de Belém received votes from more than two-thirds of the deputies — a majority that allows their possible confirmation even if the Constitutional Tribunal declares them unconstitutional.
Article 279 of the Constitution provides that in the case of a veto due to unconstitutionality, “the decree cannot be promulgated or signed until the body that approved it expunges the unconstitutional norm or, when appropriate, confirms it by a two-thirds majority of the deputies present, provided it exceeds the absolute majority of deputies in office.”
The decree revising the Nationality Law was approved in a final global vote on October 28 with 157 votes in favor from PSD, Chega, IL, CDS-PP, and JPP, and 64 votes against from PS, Livre, PCP, BE, and PAN.
This decree extends the deadlines for foreigners legally residing in Portugal to acquire Portuguese nationality and restricts its granting to those born in Portugal.
On the same date and with the same vote count, the parliament’s decree that allows the revocation of nationality as an accessory penalty for those sentenced to an effective prison term of four years or more was also approved in a final global vote.
