Portugal

Source: Portuguese Embassy in Japan

Before going through the Portuguese citizenship, I thought it is important to talk about Portugal, not only to allow the readers to learn a little bit about the country of their ancestors, but also to make them understand why obtaining the Portuguese citizenship is important.

Actually, every Tuesday, I will write a little bit about Portugal, so people can have contact with the Portuguese culture, history, politics and everything else that is interesting to know about this small but wonderful country. So, here I go:

Portugal is officially called the Portuguese Republic (República Portuguesa in Portuguese) and is located in the Iberian Peninsula, sharing borders with Spain (east and north) and the Atlantic Ocean (west and south).

Besides this territory, whose rectangular shape has originated the nickname “the European Rectangle” often used by the Portuguese people to refer to their own country, Portugal also comprises the archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira, both located in northern Atlantic Ocean.

Historically, Portugal is famous for being the nation who started the Age of Discovery, since the Portuguese people were the first to explore sailing routes to reach India through the Atlantic Coast of Africa, triggering the naval run that resulted in the discovery of America and Oceania.

The Portuguese, which is how the nationals of Portugal are called, have not only established the new route to India by contouring the Coast of Africa, under the lead of Vasco da Gama, but have also colonised several territories in Africa, Asia and South America, creating the Portuguese Empire, which was the first global empire and the longest-lived of the modern European colonial empires, with almost six centuries of ruling.

Today, Portugal is a democratic parliamentary republic, having a president who is the head of state, elected for a five-year term renewable once (the current Portuguese president is Aníbal Cavaco Silva) and a prime-minister, who is the chief of government, nominated by the president – usually the leader of the party that gets more seats in the parliament – for a four year term that can be indefinitely renewed (the current prime-minister is José Sócrates).

The Portuguese population is of about 10 million inhabitants and around 3 million of them live in the metropolitan area of Lisbon, which is the capital of Portugal. Its official idiom is Portuguese, which is a language derived from Latin and believed to be the 5^th most spoken idiom in the world, with estimated 260 million speakers.

Since 1986, Portugal, which is the birth nation of names as Luis de Camões, Fernando Pessoa, José Saramago, Amália Rodrigues, Cristiano Ronaldo, José Mourinho and others, is one of the 27 members of the European Union and the current president of the European Commission is the Portuguese citizen, Durão Barroso.

Larissa Bona

Tomorrow: The Portuguese Citizenship