Housing: Popular Assembly of the Azores prepares concentration

Cerca of 40 people participated today in a popular assembly in Ponta Delgada, in the Azores, where they settled details for a concentration in November, in the city center, but excluded the holding of a camp.

The popular assembly was called by the civic movement Casa para Viver and took place at the Portas da Cidade, in the center of Ponta Delgada.

The participants decided to concentrate on the site on 14 November, starting at 10:00 (one more hour in Lisbon), in the context of the protests at national level that are scheduled for that date.

According to spokesman João Oliveira, the present decided that in the concentration will be displayed posters with slogans and the participants will be able to present testimonies.

The responsible believes that the protest to be held in Ponta Delgada, on the island of São Miguel, the largest of the Azores archipelago, will have a “very large” turnout, because the housing problem also reaches the region.

“ We are one of the regions of the country also very affected by the cost of housing and the cost of living, which is increasing. For us young people, independence [given the] way things are] is almost impossible,” João Oliveira told journalists.

Asked about the possible holding of a camp, as has happened in other places in the country, the spokesman of the popular assembly said that such a hypothesis “is not a topic discussed”, because participants consider that “there are more important and urgent things to be discussed”. “The camp is not, at the moment, a goal,” he said.

Emma Agnelli, a 28-year-old marine biologist who has worked in São Miguel since May 2024, told journalists that she has joined the initiative for the difficulties she has had in getting accommodation.

Since arriving on the island, he has been in three rented houses and has revealed that he has never had an “official contract” of lease, a situation he has not found in other countries where he has lived and worked.

“ In an incredible archipelago, where tourism is valued, people’s lives are not being facilitated [in the matter of housing],” he said, admitting that he is considering leaving the region “because of the financial difficulties and [not getting] home”.

Mário Abrantes, 76 years old, retired, explained that he was associated with the initiative because he considered that the crisis in housing in Portugal needs solutions.

“ I'm here in the name of personal interests and people. And I will be until I die because of this”, said the Azorean who has a past related to causes of democratic intervention.

The civic movement Casa para Viver had already held a first popular assembly in Ponta Delgada, on October 21, in Jardim Antero de Quental, also with the aim of preparing the action of November 14.

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.

On Tuesday, the head of state appealed to the dialogue on housing “and never to violence”, stating that he did not like the images he saw, but that he awaits the results of the surveys on police action on demonstrators.

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.