The proposal of the party led by André Ventura wanted to add a new obligation to the article defining Portuguese citizenship: “All citizens of Portuguese nationality have a duty to know the Portuguese language and culture”.
“One of the identifying elements of citizenship is language and culture. We understand that Portuguese nationality should only be awarded to those who know the Portuguese language and culture,” defended Chega’s deputy and president at the meeting of the final Constitutional Revision Commission.
The coordinator of the socialist group, Pedro Delgado Alves, pointed out that the Portuguese constitution is “sparing in assigning tasks” and ironized that “Portuguese citizens do not speak a word of Portuguese at birth, know no Camonic texts or read ‘O Book’ of unrest'”, by Fernando Pessoa.
“Even with acquired nationality, the law stipulates that it is based on sufficient knowledge of the language, the extent of that knowledge should not be stated in the Constitution. The PS will vote against,” he said.
The PSD, through deputy Catarina Rocha Ferreira, also rejected the proposal, questioning whether it “intends to make the nationality law unconstitutional”, while the Social Democratic Coordinator, André Coelho Lima, went further, recalling that a such a rule would not have allowed athletes such as Pablo Pichardo or Francis Obikwelu to have Portuguese nationality.
For IL, João Cotrim Figueiredo also defended that the existing reference in the nationality law is sufficient and ironically: “In terms of knowledge of the Portuguese language, some elements of the parliamentary group of Chega would not pass this scrutiny, judging by the wording of some representing the He arrives”.
PCP deputy Alma Rivera found the proposal absurd and “a subterfuge to limit the granting of nationality”, accusing Chega of adopting an attitude of permanent contempt for Portuguese culture, illustrating that she voted “against” to win the Nobel Prize for Literature to honor Jose Saramago.
Along the same line, the only PAN deputy Inês Sousa Real considered that this proposal “is not innocent and carries an ideological character and the well-known agenda of Chega”, while Rui Tavares, on behalf of Livre, pointed out that it would involve hundreds of thousands of citizens with the Portuguese nationality, namely in Macau or Timor, and also wondered how knowledge of culture would be defined.
“Here some time ago I heard the municipal deputy of Chega say that the Mouraria Mosque was a distortion of the tradition of the place,” he criticized, emphasizing that “the word Mouraria is not accidental.”
In the reply, André Ventura warned that “those who want to use this forum to make grotesque attacks or bad jokes” will be answered.
“I do not accept anyone saying that a municipal clerk sprained the Portuguese language, when he made a member of his party sprain the Portuguese language for the entire legislature in a row, who later said she was a liar and even ordered her to leave The party. Those were sprains,” he said, referring to former Free Congresswoman Joacine Katar Moreira.
This sentence provoked a warning from the chairman of the committee, the Social Democrat José Silvano, against “offensive language” and some buzz in the room, leading to a new round of interventions by the various parties in a general tone of appeal to elevate the debate.
Earlier, most parties had also expressed their opposition to proposals by Chega and PAN to amend Article 1 of the Constitution, which defines what the Portuguese Republic is.
Ventura’s party planned to introduce the word “work” — an original idea of PSD founder Francisco Sá Carneiro, he says — and Inês Sousa Real wanted to add “respect for nature and animals” to that article.
Most parties, including PS and PSD (whose vote is required to approve any amendment to the constitution), believed that these references would be better dealt with in other articles of the fundamental law.
The discussion stopped today at Article 4 of the Constitution and José Silvano announced that from March there will be two weekly meetings (Tuesday at 5.30 pm and Thursday, after the plenary session) and that these could be extended at least. , until 11 p.m.
Source: DN
