“The PS was not consulted in the preparation of any amendment to the immigration law, and I want to make that very clear. At this moment, the PS will read the text that has entered the Assembly of the Republic”, stated Eurico Brilhante Dias to journalists after the parliamentary leaders’ conference held this morning.
According to the PS parliamentary leader, “the PS was not consulted and did not participate”, but “not of its own accord”.
“Because we have always expressed our desire to participate, but the Government up to this point has decided to exclude the PS from this debate. That is unfortunate, the country would benefit from a deeper discussion,” he lamented.
Brilhante Dias indicated that the party will analyze the text that entered parliament today and will assess the opportunity to propose amendments to the text received.
“We will have until Friday to make these proposals,” he said.
Regarding the assessment of the proposal, the socialist refrained from commenting without reading the document.
The new proposal to amend the Immigration Law maintains the two-year valid residence requirement to apply for family reunification but allows several exceptions, including for spouses, announced the Minister of the Presidency today.
The PSD and CDS-PP presented a new version of the bill regulating the entry of foreigners in Portugal without previously discussing it “with any party”, arguing that the text maintains the principles of rigor and control of immigration.
In parliament, António Rodrigues, the vice-president of the bench, argued that the text now submitted—which is expected to be discussed in plenary next week—”accommodates all the Court’s observations”, particularly regarding family reunification and access to the law, “without compromising the Government’s policy”.
