About 1,500 people in Porto protest against cost of living

Cerca of 1,500 people concentrated today in the center of Porto in protest against the increase in the cost of living and housing, with about two tens setting up tents in the square of D. João.

By 5:00 p.m., the stairs in front of Rivoli were already filled with protesters and the square soon filled with “about 1,500” people who decided to go out today, according to the data provided to Lusa by PSP agents deployed to the site.

Over more than two hours, several groups and collectives were speaking before the protesters, who held posters asking for control of rent prices and the taxation of “millionaires”, also recalling Maricarmen Abascal, the 87-year-old Spanish woman who was evicted from home and triggered demonstrations throughout Spain.

With a poster that said “Luís [Montenegro, Prime Minister], it is time for you to have Ronaldo’s mentality: go away” was Paula Moreira, a 53-year-old teacher, who joined the demonstration with her children because she acknowledged that “you have to do something” and that “the people need to come to the street”.

“ The government has to cut off relations with Israel, we have to lower fuel taxes, the price of houses. It's impossible to pay six rents to rent a house without setting foot there. Therefore, this is incomportable, one cannot live like this”, denounced.

For the teacher, who “spent a lot of money on fuel” to “travel through the country from school to school”, it would now be unthinkable to be put away from home: “If it were at this time, it would make up for being on sick leave rather than working,” he said.

By 7:00 p.m., more than two dozen tents mounted in front of the Porto Municipal Theatre could also be counted, one of them from Duarte, 24 years old, who regretted that the Portuguese are “losing the centers of the cities”.

So, he said, it is essential to go outside and not to wait “for the government to solve the housing problem exclusively”.

Looking for work three months ago, after completing a master's degree, Bruna Lopes, also 24 years old, went out on the streets for not believing in meritocracy.

“ I was hoping it would be a little easier to find work, not because maybe that is the reality, but because that is what is sold to us: study, continue to study, do your PhD, do as much as you can, take the courses as you can, but then we get to the job market and it is you against everyone else,” he lamented.

Despite having her own housing, Maria Gonçalves Ferreira, 71 years old, decided to join the demonstration for solidarity and for having “awareness of the difficulties that the country faces today at the level of policies that support young people and families who need home”.

At his side, her husband, Joseph, said he feared the dimension that the theme could take.

“ People are still able to solve the housing problem individually, with family and friends. It's not a dramatic problem yet, but it'll get there. And when it gets there, the demonstrations in Portugal may be bigger ", anticipated.

The platform “Can’t live like this anymore” today promoted protests in Aveiro, Braga, Lisbon and Porto against increasing the cost of living and housing.

Among the claims, the collective called for control of the prices of essential goods and fuels, taxes on the extraordinary profits of large companies in the banking, energy and distribution sector and measures that respond to the housing crisis.

The platform brings together more than 30 organizations, from trade unions to housing rights associations, gender equality, combating racism, climate action and social inclusion.