“We believe that the gravity of the exclusion of these groups that I spoke about here is so great that we told the President of the Republic that, in our opinion, this would justify an exercise of veto, whether political or constitutional, on these laws, when they are voted on in global final vote”.

Rui Tavares was speaking to journalists after an audience with the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, which lasted around two hours and was requested by the party following the police operation on December 19th on Rua do Benformoso, Martim Moniz, in Lisbon.

The Livre deputy criticised the Chega and PSD and CDS-PP bills that aim to limit the conditions of access for non-resident foreign citizens to the National Health Service and that were approved in parliament in general on December 20th.

“When it is said that this law serves to prevent undocumented immigrants from having access to the National Health Service, what is not being said is that these people are undocumented not because of their own will, but because of the incompetence of the Portuguese State”, warned Rui Tavares.

The Livre deputy warned that a future law could prevent access to healthcare for foreign citizens who are already paying taxes in Portugal or who are stateless.

In this context, Livre asked the President of the Republic to “very carefully” monitor the specialisation process in parliament for these initiatives.

Accompanied by a delegation made up of the rest of the parliamentary group - Isabel Mendes Lopes, Filipa Pinto and Paulo Muacho - Rui Tavares also accused the prime minister of disrespecting the electoral commitment he made when he stated “no is no” in relation to Chega, adopting a “strategy of going after right-wing radicalisation”.

“What we are seeing in parliamentary activity, increasingly, especially after the approval of the State Budget, is that the «no is no» is over and has been replaced by a pursuit of losses that represents a strategy of going after right-wing radicalisation, based on “what seems to be”, considered the Livre deputy.

In Livre’s view, the Government “is reneging on the “no is no” commitment and is therefore reneging on the commitment that led it to the Government”.

“If it is not complied with, it is necessary to draw the appropriate consequences,” he stated.

Asked about what consequences could be on the table, Tavares stated that, since the Government is “chasing the losses of the extreme right”, this means that the opposition will have to enter “a different phase”.

“And this will be obvious: law by law, initiative by initiative, in a much more rigorous surveillance that we will carry out in relation to this authoritarian and security drift on the part of the Government”, he replied.

Tavares stated that this opposition must still be carried out “with other political forces, with other movements, with citizenship in general” and not only in parliament, but also “at a social level”.

Questioned by journalists, Rui Tavares harshly criticised the president of Chega, André Ventura, for having suggested, on December 28, that the President of the Republic convene a State Council on security in Portugal.

“What André Ventura did was not worthy of a State Councilor, what he did, did not respect the institution of the State Council, it did not respect the sovereign body that is Mr. President of the Republic, because he basically used and manipulated the Council of State as a pawn in yet another of his propaganda maneuvers”, accused Tavares.