Police break up housing protest camps in Lisbon and Porto overnight with batons. Organisers report 44 injured
In the early hours of Sunday, 1 November, PSP police broke up the housing protesters' tent camps in Rossio in Lisbon and in Praça D. João I in Porto almost simultaneously, at around 4:30 a.m. The camps had been set up the evening before, after Saturday's marches.
In Lisbon, at 3:45 a.m., the city's police commander used a megaphone to give the protesters five minutes to leave. He said the protest had been unlawful since 12:30 a.m. and that refusing to obey the order was a crime (Notícias ao Minuto). The protesters formed a human chain, but a special police unit dispersed them with batons and firecrackers and pushed them back from Rossio through Praça da Figueira to Martim Moniz. It was all over by 5 a.m., and the municipal police took the tents away. According to the organisers, at least 10 people were detained and six injured, three of whom are in São José Hospital (Notícias ao Minuto). MPs from Bloco de Esquerda and Livre stood in front of the chain, and the police led them away too. Staff from the ombudsman's office (Provedoria de Justiça) observed the operation.
In Porto, at around 1 a.m., the police offered to let the protesters stay in the square if they took down about 40 tents; the protesters voted to refuse (Notícias ao Minuto). After three warnings, at 4:32 a.m., the police charged the camp with batons and dogs and within 20 minutes had pushed people back towards the city hall and Avenida dos Aliados (Notícias ao Minuto). It is the third time since 10 October that police have dispersed protesters in this square. The organisers counted 38 injured, three of them seriously; a CMTV camera operator was also struck with a baton (Notícias ao Minuto). The police have not yet said how many people were detained.
The protesters are demanding that the new rental law be scrapped, that evictions stop where people have nowhere else to go, that more public housing be built and that rents be capped so that renting becomes genuinely affordable. The next big protest is the nationwide day of action for housing on 14 November, including in the Azores and Madeira (ECO).
Staying at a protest after the police have ordered it to disperse is a crime — disobeying the authorities — and you can be detained on the spot for it.
