This Saturday, the President of the Republic announced the diploma of the Nationality Law after the Constitutional Court (TC) found constitutional the change in the rules for granting nationality to Sephardic Jews.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa had submitted to the Constitutional Court the Parliament's decree changing the rules for granting citizenship to descendants of Sephardic Jews, considering that this could worsen the situation of the hostages in Gaza, whose applications for granting it of Portuguese nationality.
On the 20th of this month, the majority of the TC decided to consider the rules that make up the transitional regime as constitutional, “under the fundamental proviso that it neither directly violates the legitimate expectations of citizenship applicants nor the lives of their recipients or the Danger to the dignity of the human person,” the judgment says.
The TC assumed that the change in question “does not constitute a restriction of rights, freedoms and guarantees, nor does it violate the principle of the protection of legitimate expectations (…)” in accordance with the principle of the rule of law.
In a note published online on the official website of the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa stated that “the change in the nationality law, affecting procedures still ongoing, could worsen the situation of the Israeli hostages in Gaza,” in which applications for the granting of Portuguese citizenship Citizenship is pending.
The amendments to the Nationality Law were adopted in the Assembly of the Republic in a final global vote on January 5, with votes in favor of the majority of MPs from PS, IL, BE, PAN and Livre, with abstentions from PSD and three MPs from PS and votes against from Chega and PCP.
The assignment of nationality through naturalization is stipulated in Article 6, which is now “subject to final approval by an evaluation committee appointed by the member of the government responsible for the legal field” with representatives of the relevant services, of researchers or teachers and representatives of Jewish communities.