Luís Montenegro was once again questioned about the topic that marked the pre-campaign Saturday: the Government's announcement that the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA) will begin notifying 4,574 foreign citizens, this week, to leave the country voluntarily within 20 days.

“Things are not happening because there are elections. Things are happening because the process began in June of last year. It was not accelerated now. It was not accelerated at all,” he assured, saying that “the process has to move forward and cannot stop” due to the early legislative elections of 18 May.

On this topic, Montenegro said that the Government began by creating a mission structure and service centers, and multiplied “AIMA’s service capacity by seven”.

“We have more than 450 employees spread across the country, more than 500 lawyers involved in this operation. The operation we are currently carrying out is very, very significant. There are more than 400 thousand cases that we are recovering and processing,” he highlighted.

When asked about the PS's criticism that there is a 'Trumpization' of the campaign, Montenegro said he did not want to comment on "what others say", but ended up responding.

“There is a problem with the opposition in Portugal at the moment: they are too focused on just badmouthing the government. I used to be in the opposition, and sometimes I would speak well of the government, and I would also acknowledge the things the government did well. And I think voters like that, they like someone who is in the opposition and still recognises that we need to work in the same direction,” he said.

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