Report on Citizenship Law: Portugal purposes of acquisition by birth of those who are born in Portugal and not have another nationality (art. 1(1)(g)). Children who are born in Portugal and cannot register their birth and, thus, acquire citizenship of their own country, due to war or conflict, are considered as “de facto” stateless persons. This solution has been applied to children of refugees, as for example children born to Syrian parents. Second, the acquisition of citizenship after birth is still dependent on the non-exercise of public opposition. This is a mechanism designed to stop the introduction of undesirable persons into the Portuguese society. It was used quite frequently in the past. It is difficult to justify the use of this mechanism in situations where the principle of family unity is at play. Such a mechanism does not exist in naturalisation procedures where mere residence in Portuguese territory seems to be enough to acquire citizenship. The only way to use this mechanism fairly is by balancing it with the principle of the family unity. The former has to be serious enough to preclude the prevalence of the latter. However, the 2018 reform clarified that the Public Prosecutor has the burden of proof as regards the nonexistence to effective links to the Portuguese society. Finally, having reduced the legal residence requirements and considering sufficient a legal residence based in any type of legal title, the periods spent in other Member States do not count towards the overall residence requirement. Furthermore, the law does not provide special arrangements for third country nationals who are long-term residents.122 Hence, exercising the right of free movement under the European Community Law can create disadvantages concerning the acquisition of Portuguese nationality. Nonetheless all these shortcomings, the debate over the Nationality Law has been focusing, in the last years, on the Migrants’ and Anti-Racism’s Associations’ claims for the consecration of a pure ius soli. Several of these associations argue that the Portuguese nationality law is still discriminatory, by making the citizenship a privilege to those that do not have migrant origin. The 2018 reform aimed at responding to some of these claims: as seen, it has consecrated a new way of acquisition at birth that corresponds to a moderate version of ius soli: all persons born in Portuguese territory acquire ex lege Portuguese nationality provided that at the time of birth one of the parents has been legally resident for at least two years. Second, it was facilitated naturalization, by lowering the residence requirement to five years and by allowing for those who were born and resided in Portugal for the past five years to accede it. However, the debate continues. In late 2019, several parties from the left-wind presented new proposals to amend the Nationality Law. In general terms, the all claim, again, for the consecration of a ius soli solution. In the case of the Communist Party, an acquisition based in such criterion would be dependent on the residence, irrespective of legal title, of at least one of the parents in the Portuguese territory at the time of the birth. One other topic that has been permanently discussed by some of the above-mentioned associations has been the “clean criminal record” requirement, foreseen in art. 6 for naturalisation purposes. According to some arguments, this requirement would be unconstitutional, as it would represent an automatic deprivation of rights due to a criminal conviction. This is a serious controversial topic, as the Constitution does prohibit the so-called “criminal convictions’ automatic effect” (art. 30(4)). In this respect, a recent ruling of the Constitutional Court considered unconstitutional the interpretation according to which a foreigner loses the right to acquire the Portuguese nationality by naturalization for having been 122 See the Council Directive concerning the status of third country nationals who are long-term residents (EC 2003/109, 25 November 2003). RSCAS/GLOBALCIT-CR 2020/1 - © 2020 Author 39