The President of the Republic has referred the decree-law amending the nationality law to the Constitutional Court for preventive review because he believes that the amendment, "with effects applicable to processes that are still underway, could aggravate the situation of Israeli hostages in Gaza" who are waiting for Portuguese nationality.
The new regime approved by Parliament on January 5 introduces additional criteria for granting nationality, which in the President's opinion "seems to violate the principle of protecting trust, which is intrinsic to the principle of the rule of law" and "violates the prohibition of retroactivity of rules restricting rights, freedoms and guarantees", according to the request sent on January 22 to the Constitutional Court and published on January 26 on the website of the Presidency of the Republic (1).
The understanding of the President of the Republic, with which Nistal & Associados agrees, is that Article 6 of the law creates a special regime applicable to pending applications to grant nationality to descendants of Portuguese Sephardic Jews, with the introduction of additional criteria for such a grant that "may even be considered an attack on the principle of the dignity of the human person, enshrined in article 1 of the Constitution".
At the same time, this "violates the principle of the protection of trust, which is intrinsic to the principle of the rule of law, as enshrined in Article 2 of the Constitution, as well as, due to its retroactive effects, violating the prohibition of the retroactivity of rules restricting rights, freedom and guarantees, contained in Article 18(3) of the Constitution".
If the Constitutional Court rules that the law is unconstitutional, the President must veto it and return it to the Assembly of the Republic for amendment and subsequent approval, which can only happen after the legislative elections in March with the formation of a new Assembly of the Republic.
