Housing: Thirty-five people vote to camp tonight in Porto

Um total of 35 people voted today, in popular assembly, remain camped in Praça D. João I, in Porto, where a week ago a protest for housing takes place.

The group, which has dozens of tents set up since Saturday in the square, voted hand in air to count how many people intend to stay camped, counting 35 people.

Instead, votes for solidarity were approved with the camp in Lisbon and other parts of the country, as well as the articulation with associations of university students in the struggle for housing and tuition, which were unanimously accepted.

It was also approved by a majority of about 300 people present, a joint vote for an Iberian general strike.

On Sunday night to Monday, the movement for housing was warned, as in Lisbon, that permanence and camp were illegal, and that they would continue to incur civil disobedience.

Many remained on the spot, from which the police withdrew, continuing throughout the day with activities.

The assembly was preceded by “Grândola, Vila Morena”, by José Afonso, as in other days, and took place in a new format, with several voting points.

Today, PSP has promised to “exhaust the way of dialogue to the full” with protest promoters in Lisbon and Porto, but has warned that there will be a police intervention if the tents are not dismantled.

“There is a limit. If it is not possible through dialogue and negotiation, there will have to be an intervention from the PSP”, Lusa said the spokesman of the Public Security Police, Sérgio Soares, advancing that protesters in Lisbon and Porto are committing a “series of irregularities”.

According to the PSP, it is a “illegal camp” because protesters do not have any license from local authorities to set up tents in Rossio and in D. Joao I Square, as well as the fact that the law does not allow demonstrations and occupation of public space after midnight and disrespect for the noise law.

The PSP spokesman stressed that the police are “at all costs” trying to make the protesters aware that they can manifest themselves, but “there are irregularities that have to stop”.

“Tents cannot be kept ‘ad aeternum’,” he said, advancing that the PSP will “exhaust the way of mediation”, but there will be a time when, if they do not succeed through dialogue, the police will have to intervene.

The PSP spokesman is unaware of when this intervention will take place, which, according to the person responsible, will be “proportional and appropriate”, stating that a permanent “risk assessment” is being carried out.

In Porto, dozens of tents have been set up for several days in Praça D. João I in the context of the protest for the right to housing that began on the 10th, having occurred in the early hours of Thursday a police charge.

Also in Lisbon dozens of tents have been since Saturday in Rossio.