Chega supported most of the government’s proposals in the new law and the PS, which had initially said it would vote against almost all of the law, ended up supporting the ten-year period after acquiring nationality as the period in which the accessory sanction can be applied.

In the paragraph that defines the amendment to the Penal Code refers to facts that “have been committed within 10 years of acquiring nationality”, initially, Chega, who defends, in an amendment of his own, that the period should be 20 years, the PS and Livre voted against, which would have led to the measure being voted down.

The PS then changed its vote and ended up supporting the government’s proposal by abstaining.

Who will be affected?

The changes only affect naturalised citizens who hold dual nationality and who have been sentenced “to an effective prison sentence of four years or more”, the law states.

The Socialist considered that the “list” of offences “is so extensive that any binational runs the risk of losing their nationality”.

Paulo Marcelo (PSD) insisted that the amendment made to the Penal Code resolves the doubts of unconstitutionality and highlighted the “great effort of dialogue with all the parliamentary groups”, based on the principle that “those who commit serious crimes, if they have another nationality, should be subject to an accessory sanction of loss of nationality”.

At the same time, PSD and CDS reject the automatic nature of the law, demanding that each case be assessed by a judge, a part of the final text that Chega favoured with an abstention.

The new law “protects stateless people” and “those who have no other nationality will not be subject to this accessory sanction”, he added.

António Rodrigues (PSD) criticised the PS’s position on the matter, saying that the law was unacceptable and now calling for changes. “If this were a red line and they would not agree to discuss it,” are they now calling for “improvements”? - he asked.

In response, Pedro Delgado Alves regretted the “tone of the speeches and the adjectives” and said that the PSD’s discourse was “contaminated by Chega”, prompting replies from MP Cristina Rodrigues.