In a conference to review the first year of the Diário de Notícias DN Brasil project, Rui Armindo Freitas stressed that the changes announced on Monday were long-standing commitments.

Among the changes announced are changes to the nationality law, the law on foreigners, the harmonization of residence permits in the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) and the new rules for highly qualified immigrants.

“The work began in April last year, but our political choices cannot stop. (…) If we had not had an interruption in the political cycle, these measures would have already been presented earlier”, said Rui Armindo Freitas at the press conference.

The project to review the immigration system began in June of last year and included these steps, but the interruption of the legislature and the elections in May 2025 forced these measures to be delayed, he explained.

Commenting on the one-year anniversary of the creation of DN Brasil, the governor emphasized that this editorial project “was born almost at the same time that the previous government presented” the action plan for migration, presented on June 3.

For Rui Freitas, in the current context, it is essential that there are editorial projects that combat misinformation, seeking to “make the truth reach readers”

“We started from chaos, with more than 400 thousand pending processes at the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA)”, in addition to the problems with CPLP authorizations (which were not harmonized with European rules) and document renewal, with “papers successively renewed since 2020”.

“We set up a mission structure that multiplied the State’s capacity to provide services six-fold”, because the facilitation of entry in recent years meant that “the elasticity of State services could not keep up with demand”.

The Government’s priority in terms of entry is focused on immigrants from the CPLP, along with attracting investment and talent.

“Language is a critical factor for the integration of immigrants in Portugal” and “immigration has to function as a system, so that we can open and close doors so that we can have the immigration we want and welcome those who come here in an appropriate manner”, he said.

Rui Freitas promised a migration policy of “firm moderation, clear rules, leadership in the debate on immigration, with no room for hate speech”.

Because without clear rules, “fertile ground is created for hate speech to grow” and only “with democratic societies” and “accurate information” will it be possible to have a “cohesive society that knows how to welcome”.

During the session, the director of Diário de Notícias, Filipe Alves, recalled the role of the ‘media’ in combating disinformation and defending democratic societies.

In turn, the group’s director, Marco Galinha, praised the DN Brasil project, considering it “very important to give an editorial voice to the Brazilian people”.

Today, he added, Diário de Notícias has “five million monthly online audiences worldwide”.

DN Brasil, launched in early June last year, is a project aimed at the Brazilian community living in Portugal.

The project has one or two pages every week in the paper edition of Diário de Notícias, identified and written in Brazilian Portuguese, in addition to a supplement and a website.