Housing? Luís Neves refuses “iron arm” with protesters

O minister of Internal Administration today refused that there is “an arm” with protesters protesting for the right to housing, considering that the right to demonstration is “absolutely legitimate”.

“There is absolutely no arm of iron”, Luís Neves told CNN when asked about protests for the right to housing on the margins of the ceremony that marked the anniversary of the GNR Coastal and Border Control Unit in the Algarve.

The minister stressed that “most demonstrators are absolutely peaceful people,” he said. “the right to demonstration is absolutely legitimate.”.

“What makes people manifest is an absolutely legitimate, very human reason. We are talking about housing”, said, stressing that the government is “very focused on finding all instruments” and “solutions that can mitigate” the problem.

Luís Neves said that the government sees these demonstrations “with all the tranquility”, the promoters of protests for the right to housing “in conjunction with the Public Security Police”.

The ruler also said that he believes that the demonstrations this afternoon will be “orderly and peaceful” as “regularly happens” in the country.

The minister's statements appear on the day when protests for the right to housing continue with demonstrations and popular assemblies marked in various cities of the country, promoted by civic movements, to claim measures that respond to the crisis in the sector.

This week and after the police had removed the tents of demonstrators from Rossio, in Lisbon, and from Praça D. João I, in Porto, the minister said that the PSP will act “by anticipation” in the demonstrations for housing and warned that the “camps and camps have ended”.

Two weeks after the beginning, in Porto, protests for the right to housing continue, thus fulfilling the promise to continue on the streets until the government drops the new rent law and adopts measures such as the end of demolitions and wastes without alternative housing, the prohibition of housing purchase by real estate funds, the increase in public housing, the application of roofs to rents and the recovery of vacant properties for housing purposes.

The government's proposal has generated strong social protest, with protests and camps taking place in various cities.

On October 15, the protesting movement in Porto, with a camp, denounced a violent police charge during the early hours that caused injuries in 39 of the participants, two of whom were in a serious state, and in a police officer. In Lisbon, the authorities removed dozens of Rossio tents early in the morning of Tuesday and held 55 demonstrators, who will be present to judge on 27.