The number of applications for immigrant residency in Portugal has fallen by around 80%, Cabinet Minister António Leitão Amaro said on Monday, accusing the left of still not realising the mistake they have made.
Leitão Amaro spoke at the PSD/CDS-PP parliamentary conference on a panel entitled ‘Sovereign Portugal’, defending the thesis that the Democratic Alliance coalition government is ‘the only political force’ that governs all Portuguese people in various areas.
On immigration, the minister argued that it is “possible to do things differently” from the previous Socialist Party (PS) government – a day after a protest organised by the right-wing Chega Party that brought together thousands of people in Lisbon.
“We don’t need to divide people between good and bad, our own and strangers, Portuguese and foreigners. Here, too, this government is proposing a different path for the country from all the other political forces. On our left, they still haven’t realised the mistake they made when, for years, four years, they turned Portugal into a country with its doors wide open. And they still haven’t realised the result of what they did,” he criticised.
Leitão Amaro argued that the government is seeking to implement “a moderate alternative”, aware that “Portugal needs immigrant workers and needs those who may truly be fleeing situations of humanitarian aggression”.
“At the same time, we needed to close some of the wide-open door measures, so we made the most difficult decision straight away, just a few weeks into the job, which was to close that gigantic gate called the expression of interest. To give you an idea, since we took that decision, the reduction in the number of applications for residence has been in the region of 80%,” he added.
The expression of interest refers to the previous Socialist government system whereby immigrants could enter the country on a tourist visa and, once in Portugal, could apply for residence by expressing an interest in seeking employment.
(Sara Madeira, edited by Pedro Sousa Carvalho | Lusa.pt)
Source: euractiv.com
