After holding the country in anticipation for a full hour, Portugal’s Constitutional Court delivered its ruling on the Foreigners’ Law early this evening. The law was passed in some haste last month (with only the government (PSD/ CDS-PP coalition) and right wing CHEGA voting in favour). As expected, the judges consider various clauses violate articles of the Portuguese Constitution.
The bill will thus be returned to parliament for further discussion/ work in September.
President Marcelo has duly used his power of veto, and prime minister Luís Montenegro has reiterated his executive’s determination to control immigration, and therefore find a ‘juridical solution’ to “respecting the pronouncement of the Constitutional Court”.
The court’s ruling was delivered by Judge Joana Fernandes Costa. The clauses that violate the Constitution relate to the government’s proposals regarding family reunification: the government sought to limit this to spouse and offspring under the age of 18, excluding adult family members – and to only allow family reunifcation after the ‘foreign citizen’ had been living in Portugal with a valid residency for two years. Both these proposals have been seen to violate a series of clauses enshrined in the Constitution. ND
