House protestors will set up tents to continue protest

Oconcentrated protesters since Saturday in Praça D. João I, in Porto, will remain focused and will reassemble tents at the site tonight, as decided today in popular assembly, said spokesman Pedro Manuel.

In statements after the demonstration, followed by a popular assembly, which brought together more than 500 people in that square of downtown Porto, Pedro Manuel revealed that the will of the people, dictated by arm in the air, “was to continue the protest [against the crisis in housing] in the square and, again, to sleep in tents”.

“ We summon the people to decide if they want us to camp to continue protesting. The people want, we go camping, we are raising the tents ", revealed the young journalism student, who estimated in about 60 the tents that will be set up in the next hours to, thus, continue the protest.

Asked if they do not fear a new attack, on Thursday morning, from the Municipal Police to remove the tents, the spokesman admitted that “the expectation, unfortunately, is this”, lamenting that the police, who said they had “received individual support”, while the institution is “at the behest of the chamber that protects the interests that cause the crisis they are fighting”.

On the legitimacy to continue the protest in the square, Pedro Manuel assumed to have “authorization for demonstration until the 20th”, arguing, on the question of tents “have the same type of authorization that had the police of the chamber when he came here to remove the tents, which is none, because they did not present order of formal dispersion and keep the tents seized in a process totally made on the margins of formality and legal bureaucracy”.

Another expectation of the youth group in protest since Saturday, in Porto, is that they “continue to grow and not only in Porto”, saying that they are appealing for it to “happen in other cities, as it is already called in Lisbon for Saturday”.

“ The support we have is popular, we have individuals from all areas, political spectrum, we have elderly, young people, children, workers, students, we have people from various parties who come, not institutionally, but personally, because this is a fight of all, it is a fight of all Portuguese, all who live in Portugal, who want to live in Portugal, in Spain, Italy, France, it is a general fight ", insisted.

On the morning of Monday, the Municipal Police withdrew the about 50 tents that were armed in that square.

On Monday, the House assured that the camp in protest against housing prices was unduly occupying public space, which is why it was removed by the authorities.

In a statement, the municipality indicated that “the occupation of Praça D. João I through the installation of a camp was evaluated by the competent authorities and security forces, who should act in accordance with the law, not allowing the illegal occupation and degradation of the public space”.