Two parties are using a mechanism unprecedented in Portuguese democracy to respond to requests for preventive oversight from the Socialists. António Rodrigues accuses the Socialist Party of acting out of political differences.
PSD and CDS-PP announced this Monday the delivery in the Constitutional Court (TC) of a pronunciation in defense of the constitutionality of the decrees on nationality, in the framework of requests for preventive supervision made by the PS.
This initiative — which consists of two separate documents relating to each decree — was announced in the Assembly of the Republic, in a press conference, by the deputy and vice-president of the Parliamentary Group of the PSD António Rodrigues and the deputy of the CDS-PP João Almeida.
António Rodrigues accused the PS of acting for “political disagreements” and not for “reasons of unconstitutionality” in the requests he addressed to the TC and argued that it was important to make known to the court the legal motivations of PSD and CDS-PP.
The deputy of the PSD said that “this mechanism is used for the first time in the history of Portuguese democracy” by parliamentary groups, “a pronunciation of the opposite party before the TC” in the context of requests for preventive supervision of constitutionality.
Questioned if they intend to confirm the decrees, if there are unconstitutionalities declared by the Constitutional Court, António Rodrigues replied that they will wait for the decision of the judges, adding: “We do not exclude, nor do we fail to exclude [this possibility], because we do not know what the Constitutional Court will do.”
The decree of the parliament that reviews the Law of Nationality and another amending the Criminal Code to include the loss of nationality as an ancillary penalty, both originating in a proposal for a law of the PSD/CDS-PP Government, were approved on October 28, with 157 votes in favor, of PSD, Chega, IL, CDS-PP and JPP, and 64 votes against, of PS, Livre, PCP, BE and PAN.
The majority with which they were approved, more than two-thirds of the deputies, allow their eventual confirmation, even if they are declared unconstitutionalities by the TC, under the terms of the Constitution.
The parliamentary group of the PS delivered on Wednesday of last week requests for preventive supervision of the constitutionality of the norms of these two decrees, signed by 50 deputies.