The position was conveyed by António Leitão Amaro after André Ventura pointed out that he had used a Chega slogan—”very well”—to support the Government’s proposal to amend the nationality law: “For Portugal, for the Portuguese people”.
“Times have changed because the Portuguese wanted change in the last elections,” commented André Ventura.
Subsequently, the president of Chega presented several demands to the government member to include in the new nationality law bill: knowledge of the Portuguese language; an increase in the current ten-year limit for the loss of nationality when obtained by naturalization; and automatic loss of nationality in cases of serious crimes.
In response to Chega’s demands, the minister of the Presidency only expressed confidence that “there is a path for the parliament to approve measures”.
He then issued a warning to the leader of Chega, emphasizing that “the line that cannot be crossed is that of the Constitution”.
“None of us can make an unconstitutional law. This means not having perpetual penalties, including loss of nationality, nor automatic losses that violate the Constitution,” he highlighted.
Shortly thereafter, the minister of the Presidency urged the deputies, in the name of consensus, to send the proposed amendments to the nationality and immigration laws to the specialty phase without being voted on in the general assembly today.
This perspective had been rejected by the PSD parliamentary leader, Hugo Soares, earlier this Thursday, following a request from PS in the same direction.
