Lisbon's mayor orders the tent camp off Rossio to make way for the Christmas market. Protesters are fighting it in court
On 6 November Lisbon's mayor, Carlos Moedas, signed an order requiring the tent camp of the housing protest Acampada de Lisboa to move from Rossio square to Largo de São Domingos, Praça Martim Moniz or Restauradores, because the Christmas market is being set up on Rossio. The market opens on 13 November. The order is based on an opinion from the PSP police that the protest and the market are "incompatible in the same place" (Notícias ao Minuto).
The PSP gave its reasons: there could be clashes between stallholders, shoppers and protesters; insurers will not cover the market next to the camp; the protest gets in the way of people crossing the square; and the noise will put shoppers off (Observador).
The same day, at around 16:20, a municipal police officer came to the camp and warned one of the protesters, Renata Cambra, that the police would step in to enforce the order. Her lawyer, Leonor Caldeira, believes the city council is breaching a ruling of the Lisbon administrative court: the court allowed the protest to stay on Rossio with tents, including at night, until 24 November — the day of the final vote on the 2027 budget — and told the two sides to make it work alongside the market. Cambra has asked the court to declare the order void and to bar the municipal police and the PSP from breaking up or moving the camp, and her lawyer is also filing an urgent application to suspend the order (Observador).
The camp's general assembly has already voted not to leave the square (our article). If you live in the centre or walk through Baixa, bear in mind that until the court rules, the police may move in on the square. At the end of October, when camps were cleared in Lisbon and Porto, dozens of people were arrested and injured (Notícias ao Minuto).
