After the government confirmed that the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA) will begin notifying 4,574 foreign citizens next week to leave the country, several opposition parties have voiced criticisms. They accuse the Democratic Alliance (AD) government of using state communication for electoral campaigning, in a bid to compete for votes with the Chega party.
The Minister of the Presidency, António Leitão Amaro, stated that the “government was informed this week by AIMA that it is issuing 4,574 notices for foreign citizens in illegal situations to leave national territory.” This group marks the first wave of notifications out of a total of 18,000 denials.
Leitão Amaro’s statements followed reports that over 4,000 immigrants will be required to leave the country.
“This information confirms that immigration policy in Portugal has shifted to regulated immigration, that immigration rules are to be followed, and noncompliance has consequences. In these cases, it is important to clarify that these are situations involving individuals who breach Portuguese and European rules to be on national territory,” said Leitão Amaro.
Leitão Amaro warned that this measure is part of a “first set of decisions,” with another 110,000 cases “to be decided” that will also result in “more denials and more notifications.”
Immigrant Notifications as “Vote Competition with the Far-Right”
The spokesperson for Livre, Rui Tavares, was among the first to respond, considering the government’s announcement as a “kind of electoral promise in the competition for votes with the far-right.”
“Basically, it seems to be a kind of election promise competing for votes with the far-right, about which the minister provides very little information on how this will be fulfilled,” stated Rui Tavares during a visit to the Afurada Market in Vila Nova de Gaia, Porto district.
“It’s a declaration made in the government’s name for something that won’t happen during this government’s mandate, which is, incidentally, in a caretaker status,” remarked Rui Tavares, suggesting that the government is using state communication and resources for their party political advantage.
“People need to recognize that when PSD and the government communicate, perceived as one and the same, these announcements are merely campaign electoral maneuvers,” he insisted.
The Livre spokesperson reiterated today that the government’s announcement to notify 4,574 foreign citizens to voluntarily leave the country is an “electoral promise competing for votes with the far-right.”
PSD Makes Immigrants “Scapegoats” to Compete for Votes with Chega
The national coordinator of the Left Bloc (BE), Mariana Mortágua, expressed a similar opinion, accusing the PSD of using immigrants as “scapegoats” to compete for votes with Chega, highlighting that these individuals face the same issues as much of the population.
“At the start of the campaign, the PSD decided to make an announcement bringing back all the phantoms, identifying scapegoats, in this case, the immigrants. They engage in anti-immigrant politics because they think it will allow them to compete for votes with Chega,” criticized Mariana Mortágua during a party initiative in Amadora.
Mortágua lamented that the campaign is being “driven by the far-right” and emphasized that immigrants share “exactly the same problems” as the general population.
She accused the PSD/CDS-PP Executive of intending to deport thousands of immigrants “without explaining the reasons, the motives, turning an illegal administrative act into a campaign tool.”
The BE national coordinator accused the PSD today of using immigrants as “scapegoats” to compete for votes with Chega, emphasizing that these citizens face the same challenges as most people.
PS Accuses Government of Using Immigration to Conceal “Poor Results”
The Secretary-General of the PS, Pedro Nuno Santos, also commented, suggesting that the government is using the immigration issue for campaign purposes to divert attention from the “poor results” left by Luís Montenegro’s governance.
“I mainly saw that the government is trying to use immigration to campaign and especially to ensure that attention is not focused on the poor results that Luís Montenegro leaves behind, particularly the economic contraction, and it’s very important we do not forget this,” stated the socialist leader during a pre-campaign event in Barcelos.
Pedro Nuno Santos remarked that what the government is presenting “are the results of AIMA’s work” and that “they are trying to place immigration on the agenda to overshadow the failure in health governance.”
“We must not allow AD’s government to occupy the political agenda with an immigration issue that is merely the outcome of AIMA’s work from the PS government era and overshadow what is truly important for the Portuguese, such as the fact that we again have many emergency services closed this weekend, the absence of a word or strategy for resolving the health problem, an economy declining with a detrimental impact on everyone’s lives and ongoing cases haunting Luís Montenegro and consequently the entire country,” he noted.
Today, the Minister of the Presidency reminded that the measure is part of a “first set of decisions,” with another 110,000 cases “to be decided,” which will also result in “more denials and more notifications.” “The majority will be approved,” he admitted.
Portuguese authorities estimate that there are 1.6 million foreign residents in Portugal in 2024, according to the interim report on pending case recovery by the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA), released in early April.
