The republic’s president cut himself off from the immigration policy debate on Thursday, rejecting an attempt to “respond to the side that has nothing to do with certain issues” such as working conditions.
“It is a very easy solution to come and say: since we are not able to make the mechanisms for legalization and control of working conditions work, the best thing to do is to solve the problem at the root, it closes. As clearly is this a solution that is very easy, but it is, not being able to solve certain problems, to give an answer to the side that has nothing to do with certain problems”he declared.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, speaking to journalists in the former royal arena, next to the Palace of Belém, in Lisbon, said that Portugal has a “very great” need for foreign labor in some sectors and that it could be useful “to know exactly what volume of these needs”, because “it would clarify the problem”.
Asked about the idea of setting limits on immigration by sector, championed by Lisbon Mayor Carlos Moedas, in an interview with Rádio Renascença and the newspaper Público released on Thursday, the head of state stated: “I think it’s premature to move forward with a position at this point”.
When asked whether there should be a debate on immigration policy and legislation in Portugal at this point, he replied: “No, no. I think it makes sense to look at the situation and see if it really exists in the economy. – and they tell me that -, in the Portuguese economy, in addition to the doctrinal position on the movement of people, labor needs”.
Without taking a position on immigration policy in particular, the head of state said that “everyone is entitled to their opinion” on this issue, but that “the government is in the best position, and the Assembly of the Republic of course, so that they can look at the data and say where there is a labor shortage, what the labor shortage is like, what kind of immigration”.
“There are different regimes for immigration, the Community of Lusophone Countries (CPLP) has a different regime. I mean it can’t be based on guesswork”he added.
The president of the republic refused to mix the debate about the immigration regime with the precarious conditions in which many immigrants live in Portugal. “That’s another thing,” he said.
In an interview with Renascença en Público released this Thursday, about the fire in Mouraria that killed two people, Carlos Moedas defended the need to set limits on immigration by sector and criticized that it is currently possible for immigrants to enter Portugal without a work contract. .
“We need more people, but for that we really need to establish quotas of what we need and people need to arrive with dignity”said Carlos Moedas, explaining: “How many people do we need in agriculture, how many people do we need in agriculture in industry, how many people do we need in agriculture in the service sector. This should be published every year”.
The PSD mayor noted that in his opinion “Portugal needs immigrants” and claimed that one should not “politicize this issue”, noting that “these contingents exist in Germany, exist in Sweden, exist inCanada”.
In the margins of the program “Musicians in the Palace of Belém”, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa was also questioned today about Ukraine’s candidacy for the European Union.
The head of state stressed that this is “a complicated process, as it requires the ratification of treaties” by each of the member states, but said that the candidate countries should not “wait forever, otherwise they will not believe in the European Union”. “.
Regarding military aid to Ukraine, he said that each country decides “according to its capabilities” and pointed to the period between March and June as “decisive months” for the war against Russia.
Source: DN
