Portugal’s parliament has approved a bill that would end the country’s citizenship law for descendants of Sephardic Jews expelled during the Spanish Inquisition.
The bill, which could come into force on 1 January, passed a first reading on Friday with the backing of the ruling Socialist Party after a heated debate. It will next be examined and possibly amended by parliament’s Committee on Constitutional Affairs, Rights, Freedoms and Guarantees.
Speaking in parliament on Monday, Justice Minister Catarina Sarmento e Castro said the citizenship law was a “fair recognition” and a “duty of historical reparation”. But she argued that it had served its purpose, saying it was a “symbolic gesture to mark a recognition that has been fulfilled through a generous window of time”.
Discussions in parliament over the next few weeks could push back the deadline for applications to 31 December 2024.
According to the latest figures, around 262,000 people had applied for naturalisation under the law by the end of 2022, and around 75,000 were granted citizenship. Even since the introduction of stricter rules in September 2022, more than 74,000 people have applied in the past year. Notably, almost 21,000 of the applicants were Israeli citizens, according to statistics from the Portuguese Immigration and Border Guard Service.
Some members of parliament expressed reservations about the move to close the citizenship route. Patrícia Gilvaz, a deputy from the Liberal Initiative party, argued against closing the law so soon, suggesting it be postponed until 2025. Pedro Delgado Alves of the Socialist Party acknowledged the need for a review, proposing a three-year residency requirement in Portugal for applicants, rather than the standard five years.
But Alma Rivera of the Communist Party questioned the continued relevance of the law. Paula Cardoso of the Social Democratic Party, on the other hand, suggested tackling abuses of the application system without abolishing it altogether.
Portugal introduced this path to citizenship in 2015, based on a 2013 law, and Spain soon followed suit with a ‘law of return’. Unlike Spain’s version, Portugal’s law was less stringent, requiring only a clear criminal record and a verifiable certificate of Sephardic ancestry, usually vouched for by the large Jewish communities in Lisbon or Porto.
This application process came under scepticism last year following allegations of fraud and corruption. One high-profile case involved Roman Abramovich, a Russian-Jewish billionaire whose Portuguese naturalisation came under scrutiny amid geopolitical events, particularly Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, when it emerged that his European citizenship could potentially help him avoid European sanctions on Russian oligarchs.
In light of the controversy, the screening process was tightened. Foreign Minister Augusto Santos Silva noted that Sephardic Jewish applicants would have to demonstrate a ‘genuine link’ to Portugal. The stricter rules also sparked divisions within the country’s Jewish communities, leading to legal investigations into Porto’s application process and the arrest of the rabbi of Porto’s Jewish community, Daniel Litvak.
Spain stopped accepting applications for its Sephardic citizenship law in 2021.