The Left Bloc also managed to push through its proposal that in the future, emigrants can also benefit from the compensation mechanism the law creates.

The approval of the law terminates the legislative process needed to pay compensation to more than 2,000 clients who lost €400 million after buying GES and Rio Forte commercial paper at branches of BES and who practically lost everything with the collapse of the group in the summer of 2014.

Prime minister António Costa had made the solution to this problem one of his promises after a year of negotiations by a work group comprised of the victims, the Portuguese Stock Exchange Commission (CMVM), the Bank of Portugal, the BES ‘bad bank’ and the government.

The solution proposes that the victims recover 75% of their investment up to a maximum of €250,000 if they had invested up to €500,000. If they had invested more, they would get 50% back.