President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, speaking to journalists after attending a Portuguese Olympic Committee event in a Lisbon restaurant, commented on the parliamentary group’s request for preventive review of the parliamentary decree altering the Nationality Law.
“The President’s role regarding this law is to wait for the Constitutional Court, at the deputies’ request—reportedly about 50 of them—to schedule the matter, distribute, and pronounce on it, then send it to the President of the Republic,” he stated.
“If [the Constitutional Court] considers it unconstitutional, the President of the Republic must veto it. If it does not, the President has time to possibly politically evaluate the law,” added the head of state.
When asked whether he plans to request a preventive review of this decree or the one providing for the loss of nationality as an accessory penalty, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa replied: “I just returned from Angola, so I hadn’t yet reviewed either of the decrees. What I know is what I just learned from the media.”
“At this moment, I have nothing more to say because I will evaluate the decrees in the coming days, with an eight-day period for this. Obviously, I will evaluate them, but as of now, I have nothing further to add, except that I’m aware of it, as no one knew about this PS initiative,” Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa concluded.
The decree altering the Nationality Law and another providing for the loss of nationality as an accessory penalty, both stemming from a PSD/CDS-PP government proposal, were approved 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, and were sent to the Belém Palace on Tuesday.
The Constitution stipulates that legislative initiatives on “acquisition, loss, and reacquisition of Portuguese citizenship” must take the form of an organic law.
As organic laws, within eight days from the date of receiving the decrees, besides the President of the Republic, the Prime Minister, and a fifth of the deputies—46 out of 230—can request a preventive review of any of its norms, as per the Constitution.
