When questioned about whether the government parties conceded to Chega in the negotiations of the new version of the foreigners’ law, Nuno Melo argued that “there is no need to speak of concessions” when a “long-standing CDS position” is approved.
“That others vote in the same way as the CDS has always advocated also seems normal to me in a democracy, for laws and decrees to be approved, majorities are needed. What is proposed is a longstanding view of the CDS, that other parties follow, I find normal,” he added, speaking to journalists on the sidelines of a CDS-PP campaign event in Sintra, on the first official day of the local election campaign.
Regarding the doubts raised by Livre about the constitutionality of the decree approved today in plenary, Nuno Melo said he believed that the issues raised by the Constitutional Court have been resolved.
The CDS-PP leader and Minister of Defense welcomed Portugal’s progress towards having legislation that ensures “rigor in entry” into the country so that “humanism in integration” can be achieved.
“Without rules, the only thing that [the country] often has to offer is a lack of humanism, people who are abandoned on the streets, who do not have jobs, who have nowhere to sleep, nowhere to live,” he stated, adding that this is a position of the CDS-PP as a “Christian-democratic, humanist and personalist party.”
The Assembly of the Republic approved today the new version of the foreigners’ law with favorable votes from PSD, CDS-PP, Chega, IL, and JPP, and votes against from PS, Livre, PCP, BE, and PAN.
The new version of the decree that approves the legal regime for the entry, stay, exit, and removal of foreigners from national territory, which had been rejected by the Constitutional Court last August, was approved in a final global vote after all proposed amendments were voted on in detail.
In the detailed vote, all amendments proposed by the coalition supporting the Government (PSD and CDS-PP) were approved, except for those that were withdrawn, as well as a proposal from PS and three from Chega.
