Aguiar-Branco denies having rejected Chega's project

The President of the Assembly of the Republic denies having already issued a ruling rejecting a Chega project on changes to the nationality law, Aguiar-Branco considers that André Ventura is “wrong” when he complains of political blockage.

André Ventura revealed to journalists that he would appeal an alleged decision taken by the President of the Assembly of the Republic to refuse the admissibility of a Chega bill on changes to the nationality law due to doubts about its compliance with the Constitution of the Republic.

However, an official source from José Pedro Aguiar-Branco's office said that this was a “mistake” by André Ventura, because “the President of the Assembly of the Republic has not yet made any decision on the admissibility of the Chega diploma, which is still under consideration”.

The Chega bill with amendments to the nationality law, however, has already been the subject of a negative, although non-binding, opinion by the Parliament's services, which considered it not in accordance with the Constitution of the Republic. But the President of the Assembly of the Republic has not yet signed any order to that effect.

This morning, before entering a meeting of the Chega Parliamentary Group, André Ventura interpreted this opinion from the services as a final position and even accused José Pedro Aguiar-Branco of “blocking” the political action of his party, “recovering a practice from the times” of the former president of the Assembly of the Republic Ferro Rodrigues.

“With all due respect, it is not up to the President of the Assembly of the Republic to say whether a project is constitutional or unconstitutional. That is why we have a Constitutional Court,” said the president of Chega, quoted by the Lusa news agency.

According to the provisions of article 120 of the Rules of Procedure of the Assembly of the Republic, bills and proposed amendments that violate the Constitution or the principles enshrined therein are not admitted.