Portugal’s Top Court Strikes Down Key Parts of Nationality Overhaul

Overview

• The Constitutional Court ruled four provisions unconstitutional, with three struck down unanimously and one by majority, citing violations of equality, legal determinability and protection of trust.
• Judges rejected an automatic bar on citizenship for people convicted of crimes carrying sentences of two years or more and a vaguely defined power to revoke nationality for “manifest fraud.”
• The ruling also blocked applying new rules to pending applications and voided a clause allowing loss of nationality for undefined “behaviours” opposing the national community.
• The shelved reform, approved by the center-right AD with far-right support, sought longer residence requirements of seven years for EU and CPLP nationals and ten for others, stricter language and subsistence tests, changes for children, and an end to the Sephardic route.
• The case was brought by the Socialist Party, and Parliament must now redraft and re-vote the text, with local coverage indicating the process may slip into next year.