The President of the Republic promulgated the Nationality Law yesterday, after the Constitutional Court (TC) ruled that the change to the rules for granting nationality to Sephardic Jews was constitutional.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa had referred the parliamentary decree that changes the rules for granting nationality to descendants of Sephardic Jews to the Constitutional Court, considering that it could aggravate the situation of hostages in Gaza who have pending applications for Portuguese nationality.
On the 20th of this month, the EC decided, by a majority, to consider the rules that make up the transitional regime to be constitutional, “as it believes, in essence, that it does not harm the legitimate expectations of nationality applicants, nor does it directly jeopardize the lives of its recipients or the dignity of the human person,” the ruling states.
The ECJ held that the amendment in question “does not materialize any restriction of rights, freedoms and guarantees, nor does it violate the principle of the protection of trust (…)” in accordance with the principle of the rule of law.
In a note published on the official website of the Presidency of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa stated that “the change in nationality law, with effects applicable to processes still underway, could aggravate the situation of Israeli hostages in Gaza who have pending applications for Portuguese nationality”.
The changes to the nationality law were approved by the Portuguese Parliament in a final overall vote on January 5, with a majority of PS, IL, BE, PAN and Livre deputies voting in favor, PSD and three PS deputies abstaining and Chega and PCP voting against.
As for the attribution of nationality by naturalization, article 6 states that it will be “subject to final approval by an evaluation commission appointed by the member of the government responsible for the area of justice”, with representatives of the competent services, researchers or teachers and representatives of Jewish communities.
Court declares changes to nationality law constitutional – Sephardic Jews
