In the final and longest debate, with all 11 presidential candidates facing each other, the evening opened with the capture of Maduro and the fear of a world where “there is no justice”, moved on to the question of what kind of President each wants to be, and landed on the economy and immigration — between a promise of “intervention”, an appeal to an “impartial referee” and the idea that Portugal “needs immigrants”. At the close, when they listed what had not been discussed, the boundary — more or less clear — between Belém's remit and government matters also remained.
From "bloodthirsty drug trafficker" to "law of the strongest", from "decorative vase" to "impartial referee", from "business facilitator" to "mud and vulgarity": and so the debates ended
Wednesday, 7 January 2026RSS
Context & Explainers
The Immigration Law is Portugal’s legal framework that governs entry, residency, asylum and deportation of non-nationals. It was amended by Law No. 61/2025 on October 22, 2025, after parts of an earlier draft were rejected by the Constitutional Court; the changes reorganise administrative responsibilities and introduce stricter control measures that affect visas, residency and family reunification processes.
