The Socialist Party led the hearing of Catarina Sarmento e Castro and João Paulo Fernandes on the naturalization of athletes like Pedro Pichardo. Deputy admits “circumscribed and personal” issue.
The PS rejected this Wednesday the hearing of the Minister of Justice and the Secretary of State for Sport, requested by Chega, on the naturalization of athleteslike the Olympic triple jump champion Pedro Pichardo.
The request was rejected with the PS voting against and in favor of PSD and Chega, the only parties present at the time of the vote, which took place in the parliamentary committee for Constitutional Affairs, Rights, Freedoms and Guarantees.
Arrival calls the Minister of Justice to the Courts to answer for the naturalization process of Pedro Pichardo
For Chega, the parliamentary leader, Pedro Pinto, defended that the athlete Nelson Évora made “serious statements” in relation to the naturalization process of Pedro Pichardo, considering that the commission “one cannot ignore these statements“.
Alexandra Leitão, from PS, replied that it is at stake “a disagreement between athletes“, a “circumscribed and personal matter” without “systemic consequence” and cited the Nationality Law.
There is a rule in the Nationality Law that allows shortening procedures when people have, and I quote, ‘provided or are called to provide relevant services to the Portuguese State and the national community,’” he said.
This request for clarification follows the controversy between Nelson Évora, 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 cuban born athlete they had bought it, still questioning the speed of its naturalization process, as opposed to their own.
Nelson Évora: “Pichardo was bought to have short-term results”
Meanwhile, Pedro Pichardo, who holds the national record in this discipline, accused Évora of disrespecting him.
The PS also ruled against another request, presented by Iniciativa Liberal, which intended to listen to the Minister of Internal Administration, José Luís Carneiro, “on the delays in the creation of the APMA [Agência Portuguesa para as Migrações e Asilo] and the potential risks for the security of the State posed by the lack of definition around the SEF at this stage”.
The Liberals also wanted to hear from the president of the Investigation and Surveillance Career Union of the Aliens and Borders Service, “about the warnings he made about the insecurity surrounding the World Youth Days.”
Source: Observadora
