Immigration crackdown unclear after heated debate // Former PM’s corruption trial begins after years-long wait // Vale Diogo Jota and André Silva

Portuguese news in English on Tuesday, July 8, 2025.

Immigration crackdown unclear after heated debate

The government has allowed most of its proposed immigration changes to pass to a specialist committee without forcing a vote in parliament, Público reports. The slight backdown followed heated debate on Friday that approved the creation of a so-called “mini-SEF” police unit with the help of far-right Chega and rejected a left-wing attempt to completely scrap golden visas. But the headline changes, including restrictions on family reunion visas and increased waiting periods for citizenship, were not voted on. In the end, there wasn’t time for the government to come to an agreement with Chega, despite far-right leader André Ventura speaking about an “in-principle agreement” the day before the debate.

Instead, the Social Democratic Party (PSD) government followed a path earlier suggested by the Socialist Party (PS) and sent the proposals to the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, Rights, Freedoms and Guarantees, where they can be discussed in detail and potentially altered. The government said it was “doing its part” to reach a consensus across the political spectrum and “find that which unites the country and makes it more cohesive”. The final date for voting on the floor of parliament before the summer holidays is July 16 and the government wants to get its changes through by then. PS Secretary-General José Luís Carneiro criticised what he called PSD’s “embrace” of the far-right, Público reports.

Chega leader criticised for naming schoolchildren in parliament

Ventura provoked indignation in parliament by reading a list of foreign-sounding names belonging to children in a Lisbon school in an attempt to argue there’d been a “cultural and civilisational change”, Público reports. Constitutional expert and former PS MP Pedro Bacelar de Vasconcelos said it was “very serious” and he would be shocked if the move didn’t spark court cases. He called the publication of children’s names, repeated by another Chega MP on social media, discriminatory, highlighting that predominantly names from majority-Islamic countries were chosen. “Dutch, German, English, French, Italian names don’t appear,” he said. Another expert questioned whether it could be considered an incitement to discrimination while other lawyers said the question of potential data protection law breaches was complex. Several Lisbon school parents associations signed an open letter on Monday expressing their “firm repudiation”, arguing the move was designed to feed a hateful narrative against the children, Público reports. They’re considering complaints to the Portuguese Data Protection Authority and the Children and Adolescents' Protection Committee.

Expert calls some changes unconstitutional

Jorge Miranda, known as the “father of the constitution”, has slammed the government’s proposals in a legal opinion describing many of the changes as unconstitutional, Expresso reports. He took particular issue with the retroactive application of the doubling of waiting times for citizenship, as well as the push to only start counting that time from the moment residency is granted, as opposed to the current starting point of when the first application is made. He said the push to allow serious criminals to be stripped of citizenship raised a potential violation of the principles of equality, proportionality and universality. Miranda’s opinion will be delivered to the parliamentary parties and President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa. Marcelo last week said he would be watching the proposals closely, and immediately analyse whether there are any doubts about the constitutionality of what the parliament supports, Lusa reports. He said some measures might not be “patently constitutional” but it would be better for the Constitutional Court to decide.

AIMA opens new portal for residency renewals

The law extending the validity of expired residency documents has come into effect, Público reports, but this time it doesn’t cover shorter-term visas. The newspaper warns the measure is only valid in Portugal and the immigrant’s country of origin, making travel risky. The Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA), meanwhile, has announced two new online services to allow foreigners to renew expired documents. The AIMA website details, in English at the bottom, how the process will work, based on whether the authorisation expired before or after June 30 this year.

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Most new citizens living overseas

The latest figures from Statistics Portugal show 60% of the 41,393 foreigners granted Portuguese citizenship in 2023 lived outside of the country, Expresso reports. It’s in contrast to the government’s justification of its citizenship crackdown with claims the idea of easy citizenship is a “pull factor” drawing immigrants to the country and making it an entry point to Europe. The 2023 figures showed 40% of new citizens were Israeli, highlighting the impact of a law granting the right to citizenship to those who can show they’re descended from the Sephardite Jews expelled from the Iberian Peninsula in the 15th century, which is not facing changes. Brazilians (23.5%), Cape Verdeans (4.3%) and Ukrainians (3.5%) were the next largest groups. The number of pending applications for citizenship has multiplied by more than 10 over the past decade to 515,000, Público reports, citing numbers revealed by the government. The Institute of Registries and Notary doesn’t have the capacity to keep up with the number of requests, meaning that list has been growing yearly.

Photo: Jorge Branco