On Tuesday, PS secretary-general José Luís Carneiro stated, after meeting with the President of the Republic, that the Socialist Party would not support the government's proposed changes to immigration laws if they remained in their current form as presented to Parliament.

A source told Lusa that the party intends that, after the plenary discussion on Friday, the legislation will not be voted on and will be referred to the special committee.

The PS, therefore, intends for the improvement work to be carried out in the special committee and thus “remove legal and constitutional uncertainty”.

On Friday, the Assembly of the Republic will debate and vote, in general terms, on the Government's bills to amend the nationality law, the legal framework for the entry, stay, exit, and removal of foreigners from national territory, and the proposal to establish the National Unit for Foreigners and Borders within the Public Security Police—a bill that was previously rejected in the last legislature.

At the first Council of Ministers of the 25th Government in full power, the second under Luís Montenegro, the executive approved a bill to amend the nationality law, which increases the period of residence in Portugal required to obtain citizenship (from five to seven or ten years, depending on whether the citizen is Portuguese-speaking or non-Portuguese-speaking).

The Government also foresees the possibility of losing nationality for those who have been naturalized for less than ten years and are sentenced to a prison sentence of five years or more for committing serious crimes. As for the granting of original nationality to descendants of foreigners residing in Portugal, legal residence for a period of three years will now be required.

In the law on foreigners, the government intends to restrict visas for seeking work to “highly qualified activities”, limit access to family reunification and change the conditions for granting residence permits to citizens of member states of the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries (CPLP).

The Government is also revising a bill rejected in the last legislature that creates the National Unit for Foreigners and Borders, within the Public Security Police (PSP), with the power to control airport borders, return and monitor foreigners in national territory.

The IL has already expressed its agreement with most of the proposals, while Chega and PS have advocated changes to the government's legislation - albeit in opposite directions - in order to make them viable.

According to the Constitution, legislation that regulates the "acquisition, loss and reacquisition of Portuguese citizenship" takes the form of an organic law, so any change to the nationality law will have to be approved, in the final overall vote, by an absolute majority of deputies in active service, that is, 116 votes, which will require a vote in favor of either the PS or Chega benches (in addition to those of the PSD and CDS-PP, which total 91 deputies).