The parliamentary leader of the PS expressed solidarity with the demonstration at the Assembly of the Republic, called for a retreat in the rent law and criticized the use of the police as if it were an extension of the Government.
© Horacio Villalobos#Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images
27/10/2026
by
Lusa
O parliamentary leader of the PS today expressed solidarity with the demonstration called today to the Assembly of the Republic, called for the retreat in the rent law and criticized the use of police as if it were an extension of the government.
“ The government shouldn't use the police as if they were government. The police are from the Republic and belong to the citizens and must guarantee the safety of all, that is what it is for, not to carry on peaceful protesters ", said Eurico Brilliant Dias, who accompanied the protest with a group of socialist deputies.
“It is a sea of incredible people, with Portuguese and Portuguese who mobilized for a social right that is the right to housing, we cannot look at these demonstrations as demonstrations that call into question the security of the country, by putting police against demonstrators,” added the socialist leader, commenting on the protest promoted by the platform Casa Para Viver and the movement that organized the Lisbon Camp, in Rossio.
Eurico Brilhante Dias subscribes to the statements of the President of the Republic and defended the “dialogue as a way to solve” problems rather than violence.
“ This is not a police problem, it is a problem of housing policies, it is the central issue, it is the cost of living,” he said, expressing “solidarity for those who fight on the street with conviction for a different country.”.
For this reason, the parliamentary leader of the PS asked “the Government and Enough to withdraw the law from income, the law of evictions” and promised to insist on parliament.
“We are not part of the popular assembly, we are part of the Assembly of the Republic that wants to defeat this law”, because “the Portuguese feel the housing crisis and know that police violence is not a way to solve the problems,” he added.
On the other hand, he said, “the government and many of the Members of the Aquida have encouraged force against demonstrators,” contrary to democratic principles.
Brilliant Dias also rejected the dichotomy between security forces and demonstrators: “Thursday there is a demonstration of police and the police are also part of this country that feels the problem.”.
Today's demonstration takes place on the day the general discussion of the proposal of the State Budget Government for 2027 (OE2027) began in parliament.
During the morning of Sunday, PSP dispersed, with batonada and using dogs, the demonstrations for the right to housing in Lisbon and Porto, after more than two hours of tension and orders for people to leave and tents to be removed.
The demonstrators did not follow orders, invoking the constitutional right to the demonstration.
According to the PSP, there were 33 injured and 33 detained for disobedience. In a statement, camp organizations reported dozens of wounded.
The Internal Administration Inspectorate (IGAI) opened a process following police interventions that took place on Sunday morning in Lisbon and Porto. Also the ombudsman asked the PSP, urgently, information about the police load on Sunday morning about the protesters.
The leftist parties criticized the police intervention and asked for clarification from the Prime Minister and the intervention of the President of the Republic, António José Seguro.
The Head of State today called for dialogue on housing “and never violence”, stating that he did not like the images he saw, but that he awaits the results of the police investigations on protesters.
The protesters demand the reversal of the new rental law, the end of demolitions and evictions without an alternative housing, a stop to the purchase of housing by real estate funds, the increase in public housing, the recovery of vacant buildings for housing purposes and ceilings “truely accessible” to income.