Leiria unite in solidarity with campsites of Lisbon and Porto

“ A housing is a right. Without it nothing has been done”, “The problem of housing can’t be solved”, “Peace, bread and the right to housing” and “Houses to live and not to speculate” were some of the phrases uttered by the protesters.

Concentrated in Largo da República, people also exhibited posters, highlighting that the “Right to Housing is enshrined in the Constitution”, among other messages.

The spokesman of the Porta a Porta movement, António Gonçalves, said that the “fight for housing must be decentralized”, because the problem “is transversal to whole Portugal”.

“It is a national problem and we had to show that in Leiria there is also this problem,” he stressed.

António Gonçalves lamented “the kicks and batons” that took place in Lisbon and Porto, when protesters were forced to demobilize and remove the tents.

Claiming that this “has been a recurring problem and that this ugly demonstration of the government has happened again”, the activist stressed that “they had to show that in Leiria they are in solidarity with the people who were there”.

According to António Gonçalves “it is not violence or hatred that will solve the problem of housing”.

“ What we have been demanding here is exactly what our friends were demanding: the right to housing, the fall of this lease law, or the evictions in reality, and the increase in rents and we must continue to fight for the right to housing ", insisted.

The fall of the rental law is the first measure that António Gonçalves defends immediately, also pointing to “the creation of public housing”.

“Portugal has about 2% [social housing], which is very low at European Union level. In addition, we have also argued, for example, that banking should be required to control interest rates, because even owners are not in big situations”, he noted.

For António Gonçalves, these are “viable and legitimate measures”.

The about 50 people present in the concentration, called “last minute”, “demystifies the myth that people who do not work are here.”.

“ We've all worked and come after a day's work. The accession we had turns out to be quite strong for a Tuesday, after work ", pointed out.

António Gonçalves revealed that there is no camp in Leiria and demobilization today will take place before the end of the night because “the goal is to be here in solidarity with the people who have been victims of unjust police violence”.

The spokesman of the movement also recalled that Leiria also has “severe problems at the level of housing” and, “as in almost all other places, public housing is almost nonexistent”.

“Leiria is one of the districts where there has been one of the biggest increases in rent price. Paying EUR 850, EUR 900 for a T2 and often 1,300 for a T3, does not. A person who is in a situation of domestic violence and wants out of this situation cannot go to another home. People whose relationship ends often have to continue living together,” he said.

The activist also addressed “people who have worked for five or six years, at the age of 30, who still live with their parents”, as he assumed to be his case.

Others “live in rooms, as if they were still in a student situation”.

“This is no way to live. It is surviving”, he said.

The current protests for the right to housing and the cost of living in Portugal began in the city of Porto, on the 10th of this month, with about 1,500 protestors joining in Praça D. João I and staying overnight in camping tents.

On that day, the civic platform “Can’t live like this anymore” also promoted protests in Aveiro, Braga and Lisbon demanding control of the prices of essential goods and fuels, taxes on the extraordinary profits of large companies in the banking, energy and distribution sector and measures that respond to the housing crisis.

On the 15th, the protest movement in Porto, already in the form of 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, and at night about 3,000 people joined the initial protesters, but eventually dispersed.

The tents returned to the site on Saturday and the camp spread that day to the city of Lisbon. Early this morning, while the protest of the northern city was over before the police intervention notices, the authorities removed dozens of tents in the capital and detained 55 people for disobedience, however released that will be heard on Wednesday by a judge.