Montenegro invites the Socialist and Chega leaders to housing talks on Thursday but announces no new measures
On the evening of 3 November the prime minister, Luís Montenegro, addressed the nation from his official residence at São Bento. The address came after more than three weeks of protests demanding affordable housing, during which tent camps in Lisbon and Porto were broken up at night. The prime minister announced no new measures. His main announcement: on Thursday 5 November the Socialist leader, José Luís Carneiro, and the Chega leader, André Ventura, will meet him with their teams to present their housing proposals. The other parties will hold talks with ministers, including the minister for infrastructure and housing, Miguel Pinto Luz.
Above all, the prime minister needs the backing of the two largest opposition parties to pass the new rental law now before parliament. Montenegro called the law the foundation of the government's housing policy and said he wanted it passed with broad agreement, "so that it lasts". The protesters, for their part, are demanding that the law be scrapped, that evictions be halted when people have nowhere to go, that rents be capped, that the state build housing and that investment funds be banned from buying up homes.
According to the prime minister, a good deal has already been done. VAT on housing construction has been cut to 6%, and since then 44,000 building permits have been issued, more than at any time since 2008. Some 32,000 new flats and houses have been handed over to families, a figure that will reach 40,000 by the end of the year, and spending on rent support is seven times higher than in previous years. "Houses aren't built in a day," Montenegro said, asking people to give the measures time.
On the protests, the prime minister said that everyone has the right to assemble and protest, but "there is no reason to adopt harsh forms of protest in Portugal".
