The President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, addressed the recent approval of the foreigners’ law by Parliament. Speaking in Santarém, he described the steps following the decision of the Assembly of the Republic.
“I did not attend the debate. I do not know the version that was voted on, which apparently had changes at the end,” he stated, indicating that the process would follow the usual protocol. The first step involves receiving parties “who want to be received” and then examining the law: “I will see: does it respect the Constitution? Yes or no? If it does, I will not send it to the Constitutional Court.” He added that if there are “points of doubt,” he would refer them.
However, Marcelo emphasized that if the law respects the Constitution, the political content is at stake: “And the political content I will examine in light of this idea: a law was needed because it was not sustainable to continue the situation of non-regularization of hundreds of thousands of people for years, due to the extinction of the SEF.”
Building on this idea, Marcelo says the next step is to consider whether this law “strikes a balance between ending an unsustainable situation – which was previously – and going to the other extreme? Is it a balance between extremes? Is it a law that looks at the non-ideological reality and understands that the economy, in some circumstances, needs immigrants?”
Marcelo pointed out that there are institutions that operate “not because Portuguese people work there,” but due to the presence of immigrant workers. “It is this balance that I will consider. If I find that there is a general balance, and no specific point politically concerns me negatively, I will sign and promulgate,” he explained, adding that if there are doubts about the content, he will return the document to Parliament: “And I ask: is this really how it should be, or is there an alternative formula?”
