JS condemns police violence and calls for President's intervention

A Socialist Youth (JS) today condemned the “police violence” against protesters in Lisbon and Porto in defense of housing and called for the intervention of the President of the Republic, António José Seguro.

In a statement, the youth organization of the PS states that the images of the intervention “are serious and require responsibilities” and considers it unacceptable to “use sticks and weapons against people who manifest themselves by a house”.

“ We demand the clearance of events and responsibilities for police action. And we appeal to the President of the Republic to intervene”, reads the text of JS sent to Lusa.

JS recalls that António José Seguro “has called for dialogue to resolve the housing crisis” and now the organization he led in the years 1990 to 1994 asks him to “make his voice heard also in defense of those who manifest themselves by this right”.

The legality of police interventions in Lisbon and Porto against “peaceful demonstrations” raises “serious doubts”, given that the “right to demonstration is enshrined in the Constitution and the use of force has limits”, the young socialists argue.

“It is not enough to invoke public order to justify batonadas. The authority of the State is not demonstrated by violence”, concludes JS.

The Socialist Youth argues that the tents, used by the protesters, are “the symbol of a generation that cannot have a home to live” and criticizes the silence of the Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro, and the lack of measures by the PSD/CDS Government, which “cannot guarantee the right to housing”.

The police dispersed today at dawn, at batonada, the demonstrations for the right to housing, in two actions simultaneously in Lisbon and Porto, after more than two hours of tension and unheededed dispersal orders, to remove the tents mounted by protesters by the right to housing.

According to the PSP, there are seven wounded and 31 detained for disobedience, however, in a statement published on social networks, the Lisbon Campaada points to dozens of wounded.