"If [the government] doesn't agree, we won't have an agreement. Because for us, this is a decisive point," warned the Chega leader. Leitão Amaro admits changes before the vote but rejects "issues that could be confused."
The president of Chega (the ruling party) set this Monday, September 29, as a condition for an agreement on the law on foreigners that the new legislation stipulate that immigrants must have five years of contributions to be able to receive social benefits.
"I appeal to the Prime Minister on this extremely sensitive point. Do you agree or disagree that immigrants arriving in Portugal must have at least five years of contributions before they can receive Social Security benefits?" he asked journalists in Alenquer, upon arriving at a pre-campaign event for the October 12th local elections.
And he left a warning: "If you don't agree, we have no agreement. Because for us this is a decisive point."
"We are, unfortunately, on the verge of not having a foreigners' law" , he maintained, commenting further: "if it is a foreigners' law that does not impose limits on foreigners entering Portugal, if they can enter almost any way" and if "they also do not have to show the means they have, nor the economic means they have to not benefit from Social Security" , it could result in "the worst possible effect of an immigration law".
"We cannot have immigrants in Portugal who have to benefit from Social Security. It's one thing for them to need Social Security in the future, like any other citizen; it's another thing for them to already have the idea of benefiting from Social Security when they arrive here ," he argued.
The Chega leader indicated that there were "negotiations and conversations between Chega and the PSD over the weekend", but that "there is still no consensus on the law on foreigners", because the Social Democrats "seem to reject" a proposal from his party to limit the allocation of support to immigrants who have at least five years of contributions.
André Ventura said that Chega has already backed down "on many things" and called on the PSD and the Government to do the same on this issue so that an agreement can be reached by the end of the day, since the changes to this legislation will be reconsidered by Parliament on Tuesday morning.
"This is a fundamental issue for us, a decisive issue. And if the Constitutional Court forced us to rewrite the law on certain matters, [...] there are things we cannot do without, and this is one of them," he said, adding that he did not understand "the PSD's stubbornness, its hesitation on matters that are structural."
The Chega leader rejected the argument that his proposal could be considered unconstitutional.
"It's only unconstitutional if we want the Constitution to block everything. The Constitution also requires us to allow those who come here to use our healthcare free of charge, and they can come from all over the world. This isn't the case. What real interest does the Constitution have if all the people from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and China come to Portugal for treatment?" he argued, adding that "the Constitutional Court doesn't want to create chaos in the country."
Regarding family reunification, the president of Chega indicated that the party's proposal is that it can only occur 18 months after the wedding.