Nationality Law: Right and Left in Clash

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Deputies from the right and left of parliament held a tense debate this Wednesday in the Constitutional Affairs Committee regarding the experts and entities that should submit written opinions regarding the Government's proposal on the nationality law.

The bill that changes nationality is one of the Government's bills that requires urgent processing in parliament and, according to the PSD and CDS-PP, should be finalized in committee by September 28.

At the meeting of the Constitutional Affairs Committee, with no votes against, PSD proposals were approved “for the promotion of written consultation by a group of constitutionalists”, highlighting the requests that will be addressed to professors Rui Medeiros, Jónatas Machado, Paulo Otero, Jorge Bacelar Gouveia, Catarina Santos Botelho and Miguel Nogueira de Brito.

At the proposal of Chega and BE, respectively, professors Blanco de Morais and Catarina Reis Oliveira will also be heard.

However, on the same point, PSD, Chega, CDS and Iniciativa Liberal voted against — and rejected — the requests from the PCP and PS for written consultation with entities “that work and have their own competence” in matters related to nationality law.

The socialists proposed that associations or entities such as the Immigration Consensus Initiative, the Immigrant Solidarity Association, the Casa do Brasil, the Cape Verdean Association of Lisbon, the Guinean Association of Social Solidarity, the Association of Ukrainians in Portugal, the Casa da Índia, the Association of Angolans of the Municipality of Seixal, the Association of the Community of São Tomé and Príncipe, and NIALP Lisboa — Intercultural Association be consulted in writing.

Given the rejection of the request for opinions from these entities, the vice-president of the PS bench Pedro Delgado Alves expressed his “surprise” and accused the PSD, Chega and CDS of intending “ not to know the opinions ” of these associations.

"We regret the procedure adopted for the foreigners' law, which will be submitted today for a final global vote in a rush. In the case of the nationality law, there was time to receive the opinions of these entities until September. I don't understand the PSD, CDS, and Chega's concerns," he stated.

A position also shared by the parliamentary leader of the PCP, Paula Santos, who argued that the opinions of these associations “would only contribute to improving reflection within the legislative process, but PSD, CDS and Chega do not even want to receive these elements”.

CDS MP João Almeida responded by denying that the intention was to exclude the contribution of these associations to the legislative process, countering that they could make such contributions if they so wished, but without the Constitutional Affairs Committee being bound by any obligation to do so.

João Almeida also argued that this case involves a review of nationality law, not the law on foreigners.

In the same vein, PSD MP Paulo Marcelo mentioned the difficulty the Constitutional Affairs Committee would have in defining criteria for requesting written opinions from associations representing immigrants if the PS and PCP requests were approved, which is why it was decided to prioritize experts, but without excluding associations.

The intervention of Chega MP Madalena Cordeiro caused greater controversy, considering the debate on the role of immigrant associations in the review of the nationality law to be "exhausted" and accusing the Socialist Party of "misrepresenting".

The former president of the Liberal Initiative, Rui Rocha, aligned himself with the PSD and CDS, considering that the committee's priorities should be the experts and that "it is more appropriate" not to have an overly broad criterion in issuing requests for written opinions to entities.