The President of the Republic has vetoed the recently proposed batch of nationality law decrees, following rulings by the Constitutional Court that found parts of the legislation unconstitutional, and returned them to parliament.
“In the wake of the Constitutional Court’s rulings declaring certain provisions of the bills submitted for preventive constitutional review to be unconstitutional, the President of the Republic has returned, without promulgation, as required under Article 279(1) of the Constitution, Decrees No. 17/XVII and No. 18/XVII of the Assembly of the Republic, which amend, respectively, the Nationality Law and the Criminal Code,” the Presidency declared in a statement.
On Monday, the Constitutional Court ruled several provisions of the parliamentary decree revising the Nationality Law to be unconstitutional, as well as provisions of another decree introducing the loss of nationality as an ancillary penalty in the Criminal Code.
During the public reading of the decisions in Lisbon, it was announced that there was unanimity on three of the four provisions of the Nationality Law decree deemed unconstitutional, as well as on the provisions establishing loss of nationality as an ancillary penalty.
The court approved two separate rulings on the decrees, in response to requests for preventive constitutional review submitted on 19 November by 50 Socialist Party (PS) MPs.
Both decrees, one revising the Nationality Law and the other amending the Criminal Code to introduce loss of nationality as an ancillary penalty, originated from a government bill tabled by the governing PSD/CDS-PP coalition. They were approved on 28 October with 157 votes in favour from PSD, Chega, IL, CDS-PP and JPP, and 64 votes against from PS, Livre, PCP, BE and PAN.
The two decrees were required to be vetoed on grounds of unconstitutionality by President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who, despite Socialist Party requests, refrained from submitting any provisions of the legislation for preventive constitutional scrutiny himself.
The majority by which the bills were approved in Parliament originally, exceeding two thirds of MPs, allows for their possible confirmation by parliament, even in the face of the Constitutional Court’s rulings, under the terms of the Constitution.
For reference, the decree amending the Criminal Code to create the ancillary penalty of loss of nationality, now declared unconstitutional, provides that this penalty may be applied to individuals who hold the nationality of another state and are sentenced to an effective prison term of four years or more, within ten years of acquiring Portuguese nationality.
Moreover, the decree revising the Nationality Law, beyond the provisions now ruled unconstitutional, also includes changes not covered by the Socialist Party request, such as extending the required period of legal residence for foreign nationals to acquire Portuguese nationality and tightening the rules governing nationality for those born in Portugal.
Under current law, minors born on Portuguese territory are considered Portuguese by origin if one parent has been resident in the country for at least one year, regardless of residence status. Under the new rules, this entitlement would be limited to those with at least one parent who has been legally resident in Portugal for a minimum of five years.
Source: LUSA
