Socialist Party (PS) wants preventive TC review (before promulgation)… a constitutional prerogative that has [only ever] been used twice… In the case of organic laws, a preliminary review of constitutionality can be requested by the Prime Minister or by one-fifth of the deputies - 46 out of 230. [PS holds 58 deputies]
the Socialist parliamentary group is preparing the request to send to the Palácio Ratton [the TC - thanks Chris for spotting that Google Translate boo-boo], which will then have 25 days to issue a decision. The Socialist Party deputies have already been notified of the necessary procedure – in practice, their signatures – since at least 46 signatories are required, and other parties that also voted against (Livre, PCP, Bloco and PAN) will not be invited to join.
[PS] needs 46 signatures to trigger the mechanism and plans to formalize the request next week, with only Socialist deputies signing.
The Constitutional Court has no fixed deadline for preventive review rulings [note PÚBLICO above thinks it’s 25 days?], though such cases typically proceed faster than standard constitutional challenges. The law remains suspended throughout the review process and cannot enter into force until judges issue their determination.
[I don’t know if IMI is taking the following from last night’s PS intervention, or their (admittedly mercurial) objections over the past month or so. But hopefully Sr. Miranda’s constitutional misgivings are finally getting serious attention from those with our futures in their hands?]
The Socialists identified practical cases illustrating legal uncertainty created by the new law. These cases avoid invoking positive discrimination, favoring CPLP and EU citizens who need seven years of residence rather than ten for other nationalities. The approved amendments formalize that the citizenship clock starts only when authorities grant a residence permit, not at application initiation.
President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa says he needs to wait for that review:
"And now the President’s role, in relation to this law, is to wait for the Constitutional Court, at the request of that number of deputies… to schedule this matter, distribute it, pronounce on the matter, and then send it to the President of the Republic," he stated.
"If [the Constitutional Court] finds it unconstitutional, the President of the Republic is obliged to veto it. If it does not find it unconstitutional, the President of the Republic then has a period to, if necessary, politically reconsider the law,"
“I just arrived from Angola [50th anniversary of independence from PT] and, therefore, I had not yet reviewed either of the decrees. And what I know is what I have just learned from the media.”
I was going to review the diplomas in the coming days; there were eight days for that. Obviously, I will review the diplomas, but at this moment I have nothing more to say, except that I became aware—I didn’t know, as nobody knew—of this initiative from the Socialist Party,"
In your Publico extract " the Socialist parliamentary group is preparing the request to send to the Presidential Palace" - should read “to the Ratton Palace [ie the TC]”
Unclear why IMI says “The Constitutional Court has no fixed deadline for preventive review rulings”. It seems clear from Art 278(8) that the standard 25 day period applies.
How can it be said that the law is frozen when the request has not yet been submitted formally. In theory, the President could sign and promulgate the law before PS’ request get formally submitted. One may not expect the President to do so. But one also did not expect the bill to be passed by the legislature in the first place.
A cynical view but a theoretically possible one. Isn’t it ?
Exactly! It was PS who had to take a full responsiblity for intentionally delaying the process of GVs. It was them who controlled government in past years and decided to squeeze the throttle of GVs processing. That’s why lots of folks here waited 3-4 years (4.5 years for my dependents) to get first cards. Don’t forget what they harmed us. It is just a political game here. PS only takes immigration’s issue to negotiate sth in return with AD and Chega. Once they achieve their goal, they will immediately turn their face away and most likely ignore us again as they always did.
I don’t think PS is taking the side of ARIs, they are taking the side of the other 99% of immigrants that they have consistently supported. If they could exclude ARIs, they probably would.
Did you see the lastest comment by Mr. Leitão (director of Aima) about Ari? He said that Ari process was frozen intentionally due to “social equity”. He has been in charge of Aima since PS. There are lots of unwritten rules in portuguese offices. According to what he said, we can understand that making Ari investors suffered was (an will continue be - i believe so) one of those unwritten law ordered by the most upper level of management i.e the PS party.
Here’s my question about TC review. It is my understanding that the TC, under this legislative referral, will only review the specific question(s) posed to it by the legislators. My question is, can the President add questions for the TC to consider or refer it for a more general review (I don’t know if the latter is possible)?
I ask because if the PS blocked the President from submitting additional questions to the TC, it’s possible that the TC can’t consider whether the law violates “legitimate expectations” and other potential areas of constitutional vulnerabilities that might not have been submitted by PS.
Yeah, that’s my concern too. There does not seem to be anyone in government advocating for grandfathering a 5-year path to citizenship (for GV or otherwise), and I don’t know if that’s something that the TC will even consider given the context of how the matter was presented.
At this point, I’m pretty resigned to a 10-year wait to apply for citizenship. The only thing I have any hope for is that the TC will force that time to begin when I applied. I’m naively hopeful for this.
My impression from what I’ve seen in articles (though I should know better than to trust that source of information) is that the President could make his own request but doesn’t intend to. The impression that I got is that the Socialists are making their request and if he has concerns about the revised version that comes out of Parliament afterwards, he still has the option to send it back to the Constitutional Court to address his concerns. Which doesn’t mean he will do that, but he does have the flexibility to do it if he chooses.
The President seems a straight-up guy, so if the PS’ request(s) don’t seem rigorous enough I do hope he’ll send it back to the TC for more scrutiny (as noted earlier, that’s his office quoted below). This is where his long association with Sr. Miranda - and all those emails to the President that you’re writing to remind him of that! - are important.
That said, his second and final term is due to expire in early March. Maybe he’s happy for the PS to take the bullet of being ‘obstructionist’ here? Or maybe (hopefully!) he has a lot of respect for the Portuguese Constitution, and wants a thorough review - and doesn’t mind that that infuriates the current Government and its populist supporters.
I’d agree that the best we can probably hope for now is the same 7 years to Nationality as CPLP/EU, because having different ‘classes of residents’ seems manifestly unconstitutional. But if you’re looking to hold PT to ‘contractual legitimate expectations’ of 5 years, that’s going to need a lawsuit - no politician’s going to defend those “that we left until last for reasons of social equity, namely those who pay the most, the golden visas.”
PS. keep writing those emails to the President… his job’s not done yet!
Yep. The one “promise” I’ve been clinging to is that they couldn’t change the rules retroactively. Now that I see more clearly how Portuguese politics works (or don’t) I have to acknowledge there are no guarantees. Personally, the stress of jumping through hoops and donating to Portugal for the next 7-15 yrs isn’t worth the mere possibility of citizenship. Pretty sure I’m jumping ship.
I agree. The deeper I look into this and truly sit with the uncertainty of the entire program, the more uneasy I feel about moving forward with it and biometrics. I don’t want to lock myself into years of stress, complications, and drama. And when I think about the cumulative costs over the next 10–15 years, it just feels overwhelming.
This is the reason I was pushing hard to find a way to sue the government. It’s one thing to change the laws by a legal process. It’s another thing to not follow the legal requirements for some unwritten goal.
If you think that the process in PT is long, grinding and mercurial now, just wait until you sue the government. That process will be completely soul destroying. Nice to have it as a last resort, but in no way is it the best option, given everything that is currently on the table.
Though of course some of the lawyers on this channel and in the WhatsApp chat vehemently disagree… I’m sure that this is firmly due to their altruism and has nothing to do with the income they could make from multiple, lengthy lawsuits on behalf of angry GV folks.
France can be 3 if you have a French masters. BUT all of these apply to residents who live, work and pay income and social security taxes there. No NHR. And if you look at the applicatiob docs they have very strict time in country requirements. Usually interpreted as 50 of 60 mos.
Yeah, I get it. I actually sued them before (to get my residence card) and won. This would be a different situation. We likely can’t force the government to do something here, as there is no remedy for that. But in theory (not sure if this is possible in Portugal) you could sue for damages as people were clearly harmed by their actions. Not sure why that would be overly complictated, in fact it seems quite straightforward. Of course, I’m merely dreaming here about taking my pound of flesh from them. The reality is that I’m much more likely to just pull out and stop paying them fees and tourist income, and hope my fund pays me back. Happy weekend.
Portuguese immigration minister and human dog whistle Antonio Leitão Amaro took time out of his busy schedule demonising immigrants and denying responsibility for AIMA this week, to stop by Web Summit in Lisbon (one of Europe’s largest tech conferences) to reassure everyone that, quote, “Portugal is one of the safest and most stable countries in the world. Those who invest here know that their rights are protected. In the current global context, this level of political, economic and institutional stability is a rarity." #websummit #governoxxv #presidência | António Leitão Amaro
