Traders want camped out of Rossio before the Christmas market

Comerciantes da Baixa de Lisboa stated today, after a meeting with the mayor, to wait for the end of the camp for Housing in Rossio “between one and two weeks”, for the holding on the site of a Christmas market.

According to Jorge Nuno Sá, Vice President of the Union of Trade and Services Associations (UACS), since the protests camped in Praça D. Pedro IV, also known as Rossio, the billing of commercial establishments in the area has decreased, in some cases by 30%, which also undermines jobs, since many of the establishments are small businesses.

The representatives of the traders today presented these concerns to the mayor of Lisbon (CML), the social democrat Carlos Coins, who were asked to withdraw from the camp of Rossio, where a Christmas market is planned.

According to Jorge Nuno Sá, also municipal deputy on the PSD bench, the concerns of Carlos Coins meet the concerns of traders.

“ In the coming days, within a maximum of two weeks, this impasse has to be resolved. If not, we definitely compromise this time. This cannot happen”, said Jorge Nuno Sá.

On Friday, the president of the CML determined, in dispatch, the departure of the Lisbon Camp of Rossio, but this morning the tents remained on site.

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 camps and remove the tents in Rossio and in Praça D. João I, in Porto, led to dozens of arrests and caused dozens of wounded, motivating criticism from various quadrants.

The Public Prosecutor has meanwhile asked the Constitutional Court to assess the constitutionality of the 1974 rule which states that a demonstration has the time limit at 00:30.

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.