In a debate broadcast tonight by RTP from the Universidade Nova SBE campus in Carcavelos, the Socialist list leader, Marta Temido, accused the Democratic Alliance of being part of the group of parties that wants to change the European pact on migration and asylum because it is thinking of "placing migrants arriving in Europe in Rwanda, as the European People's Party says" or building walls. 

The DA list leader, Sebastião Bugalho, responded to this association of ideas by accusing Marta Temido of telling "untruths" about his candidacy by insinuating that the Social Democrats were in favour of the policy of deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda, similar to what has been happening in the United Kingdom.

To counter the accusations, Bugalho showed a news item from the newspaper Público in which the headline indicates that both candidates are against this migration policy. 

"The Portuguese delegation of the EPP, the PSD and the CDS were vocally against this policy. Do you know who the author of this policy is, Marta Temido? It is the Socialist Government of Denmark", Bugalho counterattacked.

Still on the subject of migration, the Chega candidate, António Tânger Correia, insisted on the idea that the new pact for migration is "a trap" and defended the idea of immigrant poverty as a "fuse that sooner or later will generate violence".

The CDU list leader, João Oliveira, accused Tânger Correia of defending "anti-democratic, xenophobic, racist" concepts in order to "turn people against each other" and leave migrants at the mercy of situations of illegality, slavery and misery.

From the Liberal Initiative, João Cotrim Figueiredo argued that there are no "perfect solutions" to the issue of migration in Europe and accused his opponents of making "virtue signalling, outbreaks of xenophobia" and "internal squabbles on this subject".

Catarina Martins, number one on the Left Bloc list, argued that the country's biggest problem is "retaining those who are here" and not the "false war" created by the far right against "those who come to work" and need integration and "documents so as not to be exploited by the mafias".

Livre, through Francisco Paupério, insisted on the party's rejection of the pact for migration and on the idea that closing borders does not end immigration, but rather "legal immigration". It is necessary, he said, "to have inclusion projects in the countries that are followed by these people" and not to separate families and children.

Pedro Fidalgo Marques, PAN list leader, criticised what he called the "discourse of fear and disinformation of the far right" on this matter and recalled the "situations of death and poverty" faced by many of the migrants who try to reach the European Union.

At a time when some countries have already recognised the State of Palestine, namely Spain, Ireland and Norway, and when asked whether Portugal should follow these examples, the DA candidate considered that this should be done "as soon as possible, but within the most multilateral framework possible" and the PS also understood that Portugal should not make this recognition in isolation, positions criticised by the PCP, for whom this argument "no longer applies". 

IL, Livre, BE and PAN were in favour of recognising the Palestinian State, unlike Chega, who said it was "completely wrong".

Read Also: From wars to migrations (and to "investment"). The eight-way debate for the EU (Portuguese version)