Lisbon, July 03, 2026 — Portugal’s Parliament on Friday, 3 July, rejected the confirmation of a decree that would have introduced the loss of Portuguese nationality as an additional criminal penalty for certain serious offences.
The decree had previously been vetoed by former President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and had received two findings of unconstitutionality from the Constitutional Court.
The motion was defeated by 152 votes to 56. Chega and CDS voted in favour, while PSD, PS, Liberal Initiative, Livre, PCP, Left Bloc, PAN and JPP voted against confirming the decree.
The proposed measure would have applied to naturalised Portuguese citizens convicted of offences including qualified murder, slavery, human trafficking, rape, sexual abuse, terrorism-related crimes and criminal association connected to those offences. It also provided for the possible re-acquisition of nationality after between 10 and 25 years, depending on the offence.
Chega leader André Ventura strongly supported the measure, describing the loss of nationality as a principle agreed during negotiations with the PSD on changes to the Nationality Law. He argued that people who obtain Portuguese nationality and later commit serious crimes should lose it.
The government and PSD defended the decree on national-security grounds, arguing that it was intended for rare and exceptional cases involving extremely serious crimes. However, the proposal failed to gain sufficient support in Parliament.
Opposition parties argued that the measure would not prevent crime and would create an unacceptable distinction between Portuguese citizens by birth and those who obtained nationality later. Several parties also stressed that the Constitutional Court had already raised serious constitutional objections.
The parliamentary vote means that Portugal will not introduce loss of nationality as an additional criminal penalty under this decree.