Speaking to journalists at the Palácio de Belém following a meeting with the President of the Republic, Mariana Leitão mentioned that the discussion included the possibility of Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa requesting preventive scrutiny from the Constitutional Court regarding the law altering the legal framework of entry and residence of foreigners.
“Given the process, the way it unfolded in the Assembly of the Republic, we ended up being in solidarity [with this request] because this process was extremely poorly handled by the Government, with numerous breaches, and several entities that are legally required to be heard were not,” she stated.
Leitão emphasized that this law “directly affects people’s lives, rights, freedoms, and guarantees” and, therefore, should follow “a process that meets all necessary steps to ensure the law is as balanced as possible.”
“We understand the need to establish changes to the law, to set rules. However, this cannot be done with total and absolute disregard, which is essentially what happened, with changes even being included on the very day of the vote, at the 25th hour, not allowing parties to make an objective and concrete assessment,” she criticized.
Leitão suggested that the Government chose to proceed in this manner because it believed “everything would be sanctioned by Chega,” otherwise “they certainly would have been more careful.”
The leader of the IL reiterated that if Marcelo chooses to request preventive scrutiny, the party will not view that decision “negatively.”
When asked if she sensed that the President of the Republic would opt for this solution, Leitão remarked that it seemed Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa “is studying the matter diligently, even requesting opinions, and will make a decision within the established timeframe,” by Friday.
The new regime limits work-seeking visas to “qualified work”—for individuals with “specialized technical skills,” to be defined later by decree—and restricts the family reunification of immigrants, granting more rights in this matter to those with certain types of residence permits, such as the so-called “gold visas.”
The amendments were approved with votes in favor from PSD, Chega, and CDS-PP, against votes from PS, Livre, PCP, BE, PAN, and JPP and IL abstained. According to the Assembly of the Republic’s portal, the decree was sent to the Palácio de Belém the following day, Thursday.
The President of the Republic has twenty days to promulgate or veto any decree from the Assembly of the Republic and can request the Constitutional Court’s preventive review of constitutionality within eight days from the receipt of the document.
The decree was sent to the Palácio de Belém last Thursday.
