This Wednesday, the PS rejected a hearing requested by Chega from the Attorney General and Secretary of State for Sports to naturalize athletes such as Olympic triple jump champion Pedro Pichardo.
The request was rejected because the PS voted against and for the SDP and Chega, the only parties present during the vote, which took place in the parliamentary committee on constitutional issues, rights, freedoms and guarantees.
For Chega, parliamentary leader Pedro Pinto defended that the athlete Nelson Évora had made “serious statements” regarding Pedro Pichardo’s naturalization process, holding that the commission “cannot be alienated from these statements”.
Alexandra Leitao of PS countered that it was a “misunderstanding between athletes”, a “limited and personal matter” with no “systemic implications”, and cited the Citizenship Law.
“There is a rule in the Citizenship Law that allows shortening procedures when people, I quote, “provide or are called upon to provide relevant services to the Portuguese state and the national community,” he said.
This request for clarification follows a disagreement between Nelson Evora, Olympic triple jump champion in Beijing 2008, and Pedro Pichardo, gold medalist in the same discipline in Tokyo 2020, in which the former, in an interview with Radio Observador, said that the athlete, who was born in Cuba was purchased, and still contested the speed of her naturalization process, as opposed to her own.
Meanwhile, Pedro Pichardo, the national record holder in this discipline, accused Évora of disrespecting him.
The PS also opposed another request submitted by the Liberal Initiative, which intended to hear the Minister of the Interior, José Luis Carneiro, “about the delays in the establishment of the APMA. [Agência Portuguesa para as Migrações e Asilo] and potential security risks to the state that arise at this stage due to the lack of a definition associated with the SEF.”
The Liberals also wanted to hear the president of the Aliens and Borders Service’s Career Union for Investigation and Supervision “about the warnings he has given about the uncertainties surrounding World Youth Day.”
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
I’m Dave Martin, and I’m an experienced journalist working in the news industry. As a part of my work, I write for 24 News Reporters, covering mostly sports-related topics. With more than 5 years of experience as a journalist, I have written numerous articles on various topics to provide accurate information to readers.