Citizens appeal not to remove tents from Rossio without compatible location

O group of citizens who requested the National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture and Mistreatment (NMP) called on the authorities not to remove tents in Rossio without establishing a compatible location.

This appeal arises after the judge of the Administrative Court of Circle of Lisbon decided that the exercise of the protest “be articulated with the Christmas Market scheduled for the site, predicting, if coexistence proves materially unfeasible, an alternative location close to preserve the visibility and significance of the protest”.

“To the authorities, Government, PSP and City Hall of Lisbon, we ask that they do not proceed to any removal without compatibility having been effectively attempted or, if it proves unfeasible, without making available the alternative location that the court foresaw”, appealed the group of citizens.

The court recognised the right to maintain the protest in Rossio until the final approval of the State Budget, in a decision which also laid down the above conditions.

In the Lisbon case, the group of citizens states that the “sentence is not enough with the assertion that coexistence with the Christmas Market is impossible: it requires that this impossibility is concrete”, and urges that “everyone should respect” the decision.

“We therefore ask the Lisbon City Council to meet without delay with demonstrators and traders to examine the possible accommodation solutions and, only if none, propose to protest a nearby or adjacent location that preserves its visibility, communicative effectiveness and symbolic significance”, reads the appeal.

On Friday, the president of the municipality Lisbon, Carlos Coins determined by dispatch the departure of Rossio camp.

In Porto, the group of citizens believes that there is room for the City Hall to change the location of the ice rink, so that it does not collide with the protest.

“ The ice rink is a municipal initiative, and the pieces of the public tender launched this year by Agora for the electrical infrastructure of the events of the city associate it to the Christmas Market of Jardim da Cordoaria and Largo do Amor de Perdição, without prejudice to other reasons that the City Hall may have, there seems to be room to find a location that does not conflict with the protest ", said the elements of the group, in a statement.

Legal lawyer Teresa Violante, lawyer Ricardo Sá Fernandes, university professors Susana Peralta and Luís Aguiar-Conraria, diplomat Ana Gomes, and vice president of the Civic Front, João Paulo Batalha, make up the group of citizens who joined the presence of the National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture and Mistreatment (NMP) in the protests.

The current protests against the housing crisis began in Porto on October 10 and expanded to Lisbon, but have also motivated concentrations in other cities.

The PSP's action to disperse the campgrounds and remove the tents in Rossio, in Lisbon, and in Praça D. João I, in Porto, led to dozens of arrests and caused dozens of wounded, motivating criticism from various quadrants.

The protesters demand, among other things, the reversal of the new rental law, a stop to housing purchase by real estate funds and “truely accessible” roofs to income.