The leader of Chega, André Ventura, accused the President of the Assembly of the Republic, José Pedro Aguiar-Branco, of reversing changes to the nationality law only because Chega submitted the project, thus politically “blocking” the party. In response, an official from Aguiar-Branco’s office stated that Ventura’s claim is a “misunderstanding.” But what is at stake?
By late morning, following the meeting of Chega’s Parliamentary Group in the Assembly of the Republic, Ventura remarked that there were discussions moving in opposite directions.
“It is a bad indication for the legislature and democracy,” he told journalists.
André Ventura stated that Aguiar-Branco considered Chega’s project—which aims to strip nationality from those who commit crimes—”unconstitutional,” despite Luís Montenegro having defended it during the presentation of the government’s program earlier in the week.
He further explained Aguiar-Branco’s reasoning against the proposal, stating “that the loss of nationality would violate the existing constitutional right to have a nationality,” something Ventura argues “accounts for 0.0001% of situations.”
Following these accusations, Ventura announced a new motion to propose a parliamentary inquiry into the actions of the latest PS and PSD/CDS governments regarding the granting of nationality and residency to foreign citizens.
According to Chega’s president, this parliamentary inquiry “should thoroughly investigate, without limitations on people or positions, who was responsible for the disorganized entry of people into Portugal, many with criminal records, without any verification.”
Aguiar-Branco speaks of “misunderstanding”
In response to Chega’s leader, the president of the Assembly of the Republic denied having issued any directive rejecting a Chega project on changes to the nationality law and stated that André Ventura is “mistaken” when complaining about a political blockade, contradicting the claims of the far-right party’s leader.
An official from José Pedro Aguiar-Branco’s office explained that “the president of the Assembly of the Republic has not yet made any decision on the admissibility of Chega’s bill, which is still under review.”
However, Chega’s project to amend the nationality law has already received a negative, albeit non-binding, opinion from the Parliament’s services, which deemed it inconsistent with the Constitution of the Republic. Yet, the president of the Assembly of the Republic has not signed any order in this regard.
According to Article 120 of the Assembly of the Republic’s Rules of Procedure, bills, proposals, or amendments that violate the Constitution or its principles are not admissible.
This parliamentary opinion raises doubts about Chega’s proposal, especially given that a penalty necessarily involves the loss of civil, professional, or political rights.
The professors Jorge Miranda and Rui Medeiros are quoted: “Regarding those who are Portuguese, the fundamental right translates as the right not to be deprived of Portuguese citizenship or, more accurately, not to be arbitrarily or disproportionately deprived of it. (…) Moreover, under paragraph 4 of Article 30 [of the Constitution], the loss of citizenship cannot be a necessary outcome of a criminal penalty.”
Moreover, Chega’s proposal, “by discriminating between citizens who acquired Portuguese nationality through naturalization and those with original nationality” (provided they have another nationality to avoid statelessness), “could also be analyzed as infringing the principle of equality, as enshrined in Article 13 of the Constitution.”
It should be noted that the topic of revising the nationality law was introduced by Prime Minister Luís Montenegro during the Government Program debate, stating that the proposed revision would focus on three main areas, including an expansion of scenarios where nationality could be lost, particularly for grave “criminal nature” behaviors.
In response to a clarification request from CDS, the Prime Minister reiterated that the intention to review the nationality law was already part of the AD electoral program, aiming for a “more regulated” and “more controlled” immigration policy.
Stronger immigration control is a core tenet of the second government led by Luís Montenegro, planning to extend the minimum time of residence and effective presence in national territory (currently five years) and eliminate the possibility of considering illegal stays towards the residency period.
