The discussion of the new nationality law proposal in the Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Affairs was postponed today, at the request of the PSD, until Thursday, due to the introduction of several amendments in the last few hours.
This is the second postponement of the discussion, after the PS did the same last week, to analyze the initial proposal (PSD and CDS), which had been submitted shortly before.
The debate will take place after the plenary session on Thursday afternoon, so that the vote on the proposed law can take place this month, as the Government intends.
Meanwhile, the PS, IL, and Livre presented alternatives, and Chega also submitted new documents to the parliamentary committee on Constitutional Affairs, Rights, Freedoms, and Guarantees. Furthermore, the PSD and CDS also amended their initial proposal.
The government parties propose an additional sanction of loss of nationality if a naturalized foreigner commits a serious crime within ten years of obtaining citizenship, but Chega is now asking for this period to be increased to 20.
Chega also requests that a child of foreigners born in Portugal can only apply for nationality if "one of the parents has resided legally in Portuguese territory for at least three or five years", a proposal accepted by the PSD/CDS in its amendment.
André Ventura's party also argues that nationality applications can only be made by those who have not "benefited from social support in the last three years of residence," indicating a series of associated documents.
The Socialist Party (PS) calls for balance and political consensus in the review of the nationality law, proposing shorter deadlines than the Government in the naturalization regime and guarantees of specificity for citizens of the CPLP and European Union, proposing that the period of legal residence for a candidate for naturalization be at least five years in these cases.
The government's proposal increases the period to seven years for CPLP citizens and ten years for other countries. The PSD and CDS have since come forward to equate European Union citizens with CPLP citizens.
On Tuesday, the Liberal Initiative presented an amendment to the proposal in which it advocates a general rule of ten years to obtain Portuguese nationality, allowing seven years if the applicant meets more demanding criteria, and the Livre party called for greater protection for refugees and their children.
The Government included a proposed amendment to the Penal Code which states that the court must "take into account", in its decision, the defendant's "disregard" for the "constitutional order of values, the national community and the integrity and security of the Portuguese State", his "degree of family and community integration" and prevents the application of the sentence from having "political motives" as grounds.
The proposal currently under debate envisaged a transitional regime that would apply from June 19th as the start of the diploma, after the government claimed that the government's program already provided for this measure and that there had been a large number of naturalization requests.
However, the amendments that can be consulted in Parliament do away with this requirement.