Luís Montenegro says he is building a “new good country”

The Prime Minister assured that the Government wants to welcome foreigners with humanism, considering that those who arrive in Portugal have to follow rules and that a new country is being built that believes in those who “come for good”.

No “new country” by Luís Montenegroonly those who come for good are welcome.

“In immigration policy, we safeguard people. People who want to come to Portugal to work and who we want to come according to the rules and who we want to welcome with dignity, with humanism, so that they are happy, so that they contribute to the development of our country, so that they have an opportunity, so that they integrate well, that is what we are doing”, he stated.

The prime minister was speaking to journalists after a mass in memory of the founder of the PPD Francisco Sá Carneiro, at the Basílica da Estrela, in Lisbon, after being asked about the new regime for the return of illegal foreigners approved by the executive.

The prime minister framed the executive’s policies within the historical matrix of the Democratic Alliance (PSD/CDS-PP coalition), according to which, as 45 years ago, “the beginning and end of political action is the person”.

According to Montenegro, the Government is committed to building a country that “leaves no one behind”, that believes in the Portuguese and in the people who arrive in the country “for good”.

“We are building a new, strong, cohesive Portugalwhich really leaves no one behind”, he stated, adding that “he believes in the Portuguese and believes in those who come to Portugal for good”, he declared, adding that, like Sá Carneiro, this Government will leave a legacy.

New law to put an end to “abuses”

This Friday, at the opening of the fortnightly debate in Parliament, Montenegro argued that the new legal regime for returning illegal immigrants will end “permissive legislation” that favors abuse and benefits offenders.

When asked by the PSD parliamentary leader, Hugo Soares, about the diploma approved on Thursday by the Council of Ministers, which will be under public consultation from today onwards, before entering parliament, the prime minister said that the regime now proposed by the Government aims to provide “greater agility, greater capacity to be consequential” with immigrants who are in an illegal situation.

“In order to have a policy that can, on the one hand, restore compliance with the rules and demonstrate that it is worth coming to Portugal legally and also demonstrate that it is not worth coming to Portugal outside of legal principles and that anyone who comes outside of these principles will have to return to their origin”, he stated.

The head of the Government highlighted that the changes to immigration policy by the PSD/CDS-PP executive began with the end of the expression of interest “which had the effect of a call” and continued with changes to the legal regime for foreigners and the nationality law (which is still under analysis by the Constitutional Court).

“Now with greater efficiency in the return, we will, in fact, be able to have regulated and humanist immigration, dignifying the people and families who come to Portugal for the sake of enriching our human resources and building their life projects”, these.