António Filipe, of the PCP, today argued that a more decisive intervention by the President of the Republic would be justified after police actions in the early hours, which resulted in more than two dozen wounded and led to a request for clarification from the PR to the Government and the Ombudsman.
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01/11/2026
by
Lusa
António Filipe of the CFP today argued that “a more decisive intervention would be justified” of the President of the Republic beyond the clarifications on the police charges last night and that the parliament “cannot pretend that this did not happen”.
“I believe that a more decisive intervention by the President of the Republic (PR) would be justified,” said António Filipe, a member of the PCP’s central committee in the Rossio square in Lisbon, where thousands of people gathered again today for the right to housing in a popular assembly that today also protests against the police load against protesters last night.
António Filipe stressed that nobody disagrees with António José Seguro when asking for consensus and expresses concern, but considers it insufficient to ask for detailed clarifications about the last night.
“ I don't understand what part the PR hasn't realized about what we saw yesterday. I believe that in fact the functioning of democracy, as we understand it, as it was achieved on 25 April, would justify a more energetic action, a word that cannot happen,” he said.
PSP dispersed early today the camped by the right to housing in Rossio, in Lisbon, and in Praça D. João I, in Porto, removing about 100 tents. The intervention culminated in police charges and throwing objects, causing more than two dozen wounded between demonstrators and police.
The police action motivated a request for clarification from the President of the Republic to the Government and the Ombudsman, and the announcement of a criminal complaint by a lawyer for abuse of power against the Minister of the Internal Administration and the Director of the PSP.
In the camps, which began on October 10th, protesters demand the reversal of the new rental law, the end of demolitions and evictions without housing alternative, a brake on housing purchase by real estate funds, the increase in public housing, the recovery of vacant buildings for housing purposes and “truely accessible” ceilings to income.

