Will the law allowing Jews to receive passports from Portugal be repealed soon?

July 13, 2020   

Will Portugal's passports expire soon? Everyone is familiar with the phenomenon of 'Portuguese passports,' but now a new antisemitic bill threatens to put an end to it - after two antisemitic members of parliament, Constanza Sousa and Catarina Ferreira, are working to prevent Jews from receiving Portuguese citizenship, for antisemitic reasons. How can you become a programmer, paramedic, or multimedia producer without investing a single penny? The expulsion from Portugal, which occurred about 500 years ago, caused the extinction of the Jewish community and almost no remnants remain. In recent years, the Portuguese parliament has enacted a law designed to correct the historical injustice inflicted on Jews, allowing descendants of Portuguese Jews from that period to receive citizenship. Thousands of Jews from around the world have submitted applications and invested huge sums in the Portuguese economy. The return of Jewish descendants to Portugal and granting them rights did not please the two members of parliament. Precisely during the Corona period and during a global economic crisis, the two decided to act to repeal the law. According to them, there is a demographic concern that granting citizenship to Jews will result in hundreds of thousands of Jews taking over Portugal within 200 years. The 'Telmo' organization urgently wrote to the president of the Portuguese parliament and demanded that he reject their request, oppose their demand, and have them dismissed. The letter claims that this is conduct reminiscent of a dark era. Unfortunately, the virus of anti-Semitism and hatred of Jews has never rested. According to the organization, the statements of the members of parliament against Jews evoke Nazi motifs and could cause an anti-Semitic outbreak. The letter, which was also sent to the Anti-Defamation League, which works to prevent anti-Semitism, was signed with a clear call for the president to clarify that the existing law will not be changed.