The President of the Republic defended this Saturday, November 1st, that in matters such as the Nationality Law there must be the greatest possible consensus, as well as in health, education, housing and justice, so that there is policy stability.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa spoke to the Lusa agency in a hotel in the province of Giza, on the outskirts of the city of Cairo, after participating in the inauguration ceremony of the Grand Egyptian Museum, at the invitation of the President of Egypt, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
When asked if he regrets that the PS was left out of the recent review of the Nationality Law, which was approved in parliament by PSD, Chega, IL, CDS-PP and JPP, and which will soon arrive at the Palácio de Belém, the head of state framed this legislation in a set of “matters that are very transversal”.
“In these matters, I think that the greater the consensus at parliamentary level, the better. Why? For a very simple reason: because there is no risk that, when the Government changes, the policy can change and move from policy to policy. There is no advantage to this. There is an advantage in a certain stability”, defended.
According to Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, the same applies to health, education, housing and justice.
“In justice, I have already defended this a lot. If I can, I might still talk about it in due course”, he said.
“Now, other matters where this consensus is important are precisely those that concern fundamental aspects of the legal status of people, Portuguese and foreigners. In short, in general, all of this makes sense to be as consensual as possible”he added.
On Tuesday, the revision of the Nationality Law was approved in parliament, in a final global vote, with 157 votes in favor, from PSD, Chega, IL, CDS-PP and JPP, which correspond to more than two thirds, and 64 votes against, from PS, Livre, PCP, BE and PAN.
With the same vote, an amendment to the Penal Code was approved that provides for the loss of nationality as an additional penalty for anyone convicted with an effective prison sentence of four years or more.
The two decrees, which originated from a law proposal from the PSD/CDS-PP Government, are still awaiting final wording before being sent to the President of the Republic.
* journalist from the Lusa agency
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