Constitutional judges deliver new broadside to “loss of nationality” diploma within Nationality Law – Portugal Resident
Constitutional judges have once again kicked out the diploma seeking to strip foreign nationals of citizenship if they commit serious crimes.
The document, approved by ‘parties of the right’, has been unanimously considered ‘unconstitutional’.
According to reports, the government is quite prepared to let the diploma – championed by right-wing CHEGA – fall: the consensus being that it is more important that President Seguro has promulgated the wider Nationality Law, and all that that entails.
But CHEGA leader André Ventura has other ideas. He said yesterday that unless the government forges ahead in spite of the court’s veto, he will be demanding a referendum on the subject.
As Expresso has explained, “theoretically, the declaration of unconstitutionality can be overturned and the law imposed if it is reconfirmed by a two-thirds vote of MPs – the same constitutional majority that approved it, in spite of the court’s first veto, last month. But Luís Montenegro doesn’t appear ready to enter what would look like a war on the country’s institutions.
Ventura said yesterday that if parties decide to ‘roll over’ on this issue, “we will ask the Portuguese whether they agree or not that those who commit crimes should lose their Portuguese nationality – because this is getting tiring, already”.
The CHEGA leader repeated his earlier criticisms of the court ‘acting politically’, and “against the will of the majority of the population, and of the majority of politicians”.
The proposal to which Constitutional judges objected involves removing citizenship from any foreign national convicted of a serious crime (the crimes have been stipulated as murder, slavery, human trafficking, rape, sexual abuse, and crimes against state security) within 15 years of attaining Portuguese nationality. Their argument being that, in focusing solely on foreign nationals, the diploma violates the principle of equality, enshrined in the Portuguese Constitution.
Source: Expresso/ SIC Notícias
