Two requests submitted by the Government were included in the updated voting guide provided late in the morning, which did not appear in the initial version on Thursday.
On Thursday, this option to move to the specialization phase without a vote was suggested by the Socialist Party (PS) but did not gain the agreement of the Social Democratic Party (PSD).
The Socialists had proposed the Government’s immigration bills be directly passed to the committee stage to “remove legal and constitutional uncertainty” and allow for refinement work in committee.
However, the PSD’s parliamentary leader, Hugo Soares, rejected these arguments, countering that the bills regulating immigration are “priorities,” hence “the parties must take a stand now.”
“Regulating immigration, reviewing the nationality law, and better controlling who enters and resides in the country are priorities for the nation’s life, and parties should take positions on them. It doesn’t even seem logical to me to postpone stances in general matters when subsequently all dialogue should take place in the specialization work,” he argued on Thursday, following the PSD’s parliamentary group meeting.
With the likely approval of the two Government requests, only the bill aiming to create the National Foreigners and Borders Unit within the Public Security Police, which was rejected in the previous legislature, will be voted on in general terms today.
On Thursday afternoon, Prime Minister Luís Montenegro received the president of Chega at the official residence in São Bento, at the request of André Ventura.
“What I can say now, up to this point, is that we have a principle of understanding regarding immigration regulation and nationality restriction, which I think will be very, very positive for the country,” Ventura stated after the meeting, which lasted just over half an hour.
The Chega leader then admitted to a potential favorable vote on proposals with which there is agreement but said he was not yet “absolutely certain” of all the points that would be approved or rejected and warned of “absolute reciprocity,” stating meetings between the two parties would continue through the night.
