Ana Catarina Mendes accuses Leitão Amaro of giving in to the Enough and promote fear

A former socialist minister with the tutelage of immigration accused today his successor, António Leitão Amaro (PSD), to give way to the extremeist discourse of Enough and to promote fear towards immigrants in Portugal.

“ I think that the arrival of Luís Montenegro to the Government and, in particular, the action of Minister Leitão Amaro, allowed to increase a negative feeling about the immigration that never happened in Portugal ", said in an interview with Lusa, MEP Ana Catarina Mendes, former Minister of Parliamentary Affairs.

In an interview with Lusa on the three years of the creation of the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA), which are marked on October 29, Ana Catarina Mendes recalled that, for years, PS and PSD consensualized migration policies.

In particular, he praised former Minister of Social Democratic Internal Administration Miguel Macedo, who “was responsible for the transposition of the return directive” and “wanted to create consensus” without “radical or extreme options”.

However, a recent event has changed the view of the centre-right migration policy: “The emergence of an extremist party in Portugal, which used immigration to cause fear,” which made it impossible for the socialist governments of António Costa to find points of encounter with the PSD for immigration policy.

The former governor recalled that the Social Democrats “vote against the extinction of the SEF” (Foreigners and Borders Office, which gave way to AIMA), without “a single attempt to understand what this meant” from the point of view of migration policy.

For the former minister, the PSD “renounced its own history” on this theme for fear of losing electorate: “I believe that the fear that an extremist party would have more votes than the PSD” led to the construction of this idea that “socialists lose control of immigration”, subscribing to the speeches of André Ventura.

“ All international reports welcome the immigration policy of then,” said Ana Catarina Mendes, considering that “there is a lack of rigour and sometimes lack of study on matters.”.

“ I think that today we are faced with a world of the immediate, sensationalism, where perceptions become true, where social networks disseminate disinformation ", stressed.

Society deals, “in global terms, with a clear agenda against immigration and that found in immigration the scapegoat for resentment, the evils of the world.”.

“AIMA is able to have its own budget”, gave profit and “does not make integration policy because the government does not know (...) or does not want”, accused the former governor.

Ana Catarina Mendes regretted what she described as a “break of European solidarity”: “The first reaction of 22 Member States, which Portugal has fortunately not subscribed to, to request Schengen suspension in Spain” because of the incidents in Ceuta, when it comes to “an external border of the European Union”, which is a shared responsibility.

The MEPs also criticised the behaviour of MEPs from the European People's Party (PPE), which integrates PSD and CDS, in approving the Return Regulation in the EU, with the support of the far right.

“ On that day they celebrated effusively, saying ‘ Go home. Return them to their countries'," said the MEP, who said she was fighting in Brussels for “the European project to remain a project of solidarity, democracy and freedom”.

For this reason, “the migration policies should be policy-viewed with what is the rigor of the facts,” he summed up.

Ana Catarina Mendes acknowledged, however, that public services must monitor the increase in demand.

Therefore, the first of the 34 AIMA shops planned was opened in the Algarve, in Citizen's store, to “create a path of documental integration”.

“ We were also saying at the time that it was not okay and that it was necessary to strengthen public services and that it was interconnected because the “things are not done by drawers” and immigration is “also an integrated policy” with various areas of government, such as health or education.

He therefore defended the need for “public services for all citizens, whether national or foreign, who are in Portugal”.

“There has always been immigration” and “it is up to governments to manage the situation,” and “not to blame the weakest,” said Ana Catarina Mendes.