on November 7, 2025

Martins Castro sends a letter to the President of Portugal denouncing signs of discrimination in the new Nationality Law.

on November 7, 2025

Martins Castro envia carta ao Presidente de Portugal denunciando sinais de discriminação da nova Lei da Nacionalidade

The letter defends fundamental principles of the rule of law.

Martins Castro sent a formal letter to the Presidency of the Republic. denouncing signs of discrimination in recent changes to the Nationality Law approved by Parliament.

The document, signed by lawyer and CEO of Martins Castro, Renato Martins, and jurist Isabel Comte, was sent on behalf of civil society and represents thousands of Portuguese descendants worldwide. The letter appeals to President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa not to promulgate the decree approved on October 28, requesting that the text be... referred to the Constitutional Court or even Politically vetoed.

"The changes violate fundamental principles of our rule of law and directly affect the family and property lives of many residents and people of Portuguese descent," the document notes.

Points questioned by Martins Castro

The legal analysis addresses two texts approved by the Constitutional Affairs Committee:

The Eleventh Amendment to the Nationality Law;
and the Introduction, in the Penal Code, of loss of nationality as an accessory penalty..

According to representatives from Martins Castro, both texts deal with matters of acquisition and loss of nationality, and therefore should be approved in the form of an organic law, with greater constitutional and parliamentary rigor.

Among the points considered critical, the document highlights the creation of ideological and indeterminate criteria for granting and denying citizenship, such as the test of adherence to the values of the rule of law, knowledge of national culture and symbols, and the evaluation of "behaviors" of institutional rejection.

These demands, the letter states, are incompatible with freedom of conscience and expression, and also violate the principle of legal certainty and the determinability of norms.

Defending the Sephardic route as historical reparation.

In the document, Martins Castro also reiterates the importance of the Sephardic route., whose repeal is foreseen in the new law. The text recalls the historical and symbolic value of this legal recognition:

"Regarding the acquisition of nationality through naturalization, and with all due respect, we believe that Article 6, No. 7, of the Nationality Law should not be revoked, since this route—aimed at descendants of Sephardic Jews of Portuguese origin—is unequivocally restorative in nature, recognizing and mitigating, through legal means, the historical effects of the persecutions and expulsions that affected those communities and their diaspora."

Martins Castro thus reaffirms its institutional commitment to respecting the Constitution, justice, and the continuity of rights acquired by those who recognize in Portugal a legal and historical heritage of belonging, without discrimination, to the Portuguese-descendant community.