Given the total number of immigrants in Portugal, which the head of state, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, said was around 1.5 or 1.6 million people, their contribution to the economy “is fundamental, practically in all sectors”.

The President of the Republic warned that “there are mistakes that cannot be made” and it is necessary to see, in addition to the approximately 4,500 that the government has already mentioned that will begin to be notified to leave the country voluntarily, what “the total number of those who, upon regularisation, as a consequence of the new law, are forced to leave” is.

“Whether it’s 4,000 out of 1.5 million or 1.6 million, whether it’s 5,000, whether it’s 10,000,” he said, noting, however, that even if it’s “100, 10, 20, 30, 50, 100, 4,500, it’s always painful for them.”

But this “cannot be presented as meaning: it is important that immigration from Portugal disappears”. This is a collapse in the Portuguese economy and society, pure and simple, because we are talking about a million or so [people] and they support various sectors of the economy”, he warned, stressing that “this generalisation makes no sense”.

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