Chega insists on reconfirming the amendment to the Penal Code that creates an additional penalty of loss of nationality, but to achieve this it would need a two-thirds majority in Parliament.
The decree has already been declared unconstitutional twice, for violating the principles of equality and proportionality, but André Ventura is not willing to let the proposal fall.
The Chega leader proposed two ways to get around the Constitutional Court (TC) decision: a new vote and sending the document to Belém or the holding of a referendum.
The first scenario is not impossible, but it is unlikely: the Constitution allows that a norm declared unconstitutional can be confirmed by an absolute majority of two thirds of the deputies present (something that has never happened in a democracy).
However, according to the reading of the constitutionalists consulted by the in this case the President of the Republic would not be obliged to promulgate a diploma declared unconstitutionaleven if this has been confirmed in Parliament.
Furthermore, when the law came into force, any request for successive inspection of the TC by a group of deputies would result in the judges at Palácio Ratton once again declaring it unconstitutional.
As for the referendum, the Constitution does not allow issues of exclusive legislative competence of the Assembly of the Republic to be referred to, namely on “acquisition, loss and reacquisition of Portuguese citizenship”.
The only way to take the issue to public consultation would be to choose an issue related to a sentencing regime (something that can be endorsed), but even in this case the referendum proposal would have to be approved in Parliament and also by the TC.
Apart from the change in the Penal Code, the new Nationality Law has already been promulgated by the President of the Republic.
