In an interview with Público and Renascença, the Minister of the Presidency, António Leitão Amaro, said that the two-year deadline for family reunification will be maintained and explained: "What the Constitutional Court says is that there are certain groups of citizens who require a shorter deadline or a different consideration."

"We will seek balanced solutions, maintaining the general two-year rule," adds Leitão Amaro.

In August, the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, vetoed the proposed new law on foreigners, after the Constitutional Court deemed five provisions of the law, approved by the AD and Chega parties, unconstitutional.

The judges overturned the rule that authorized family reunification only for minors, without their spouses; the minimum two-year residency period; the minimum time for reviewing applications; and the requirement to comply with integration measures.

In the interview, released today, the governor says that the return law has "a set of excessively lengthy procedures."

"For example, there are two different administrative phases, and in both, a period of voluntary abandonment. Appeals always have a suspensive effect. The deadlines are too long," he reflects.

He argues that all of these matters need to be adjusted, "in line with the new European rules," so that people "have the opportunity to defend themselves, to be heard, and so that returns can be carried out quickly when people fail to comply with the rules."

He reveals that in October, the government will take this matter to the National Council for Migration and Asylum and, only then, will it approve the bill, with "more procedural speed" and fewer delaying and administrative phases.

"Always preserving rights, prohibiting returns to countries where fundamental rights are not guaranteed, preventing mass removals and returns, protecting unaccompanied minors, with all due caution and respect for people's fundamental rights," the minister adds.

He insists that Portugal needs a faster process, emphasizing: "Those who comply must be supported in their integration process; those who do not comply must face consequences and be removed."

When asked about the statements by Rui Armindo Freitas, Deputy Secretary of State for the Presidency and Immigration, who announced in June that 40,000 citizens would be notified for expulsion, he says that the notifications "are ongoing," but that the number given refers to rejected requests, "which will gradually lead to abandonment notifications."

"The abandonment notifications already issued are between 10,000 and 15,000," he revealed.