Objection until December and general strike? Porto and Lisbon do not disassemble tents

Habout a week ago, Praça D. João I, in Porto, became a campsite, where hundreds decided to protest the precarious way they live and see their future.

The action, which aimed to warn of the impossibility of finding affordable homes in Portugal, ended up marked by the muscular advances of the police against the protesters, ‘burning’ the protests, which reached more points in the country. 

So, this weekend, the Porto demonstration, also joined the city of Lisbon. Summoned under the motto “No more? Then set up your tent!”, the protest for housing also arose after the demonstration organised by CGTP by wage increases and against rising cost of living.

Thousands of people participated in the housing camps in Lisbon and Porto and the promise is not to stay here. By December 31, the protesters want to see concrete measures and promise not to ‘drop the tents’ until then.

Camping until 31 December

The movement for housing in Porto prolonged the notice of demonstration until December 31. The group spokesperson, Maria João Callisto, explained that the goal is not to sleep on the street until then, but to find solutions and an understanding.

“ It's very hard to be here, it's very hard to sleep here, people didn't decide to come to the square because they have nothing to do in life, it's exactly the reverse, it's because we're so worried about what to do with life that we mobilize and make a Herculean effort to be here ", said, detailing that they did a notice to stay here from 21 october [wednesday] to 31 december 2026. Our goal is not to stay until December 31 is to get solutions and an understanding,” he added. “It is a very bad sign if we have to stay here” by the end of the year.

Protesters want to meet Pedro Duarte

This wasn't the group's only decision. In another attempt to solve the problems, it was also decided, formally invite Porto mayor Pedro Duarte, to come and talk to the protesters in the square.

“ We will send an email with the formal invitation, so we hope it will be accepted and that it can be moved here even because it is right next door ", stressed.

Remember that Pedro Duarte, last week, said he had the doors of the municipality “always open”.

“ On Thursday, my office contacted the organizers [of the demonstration] so that we could promote a meeting so that we could talk about the housing problem and the invitation remains”, said the mayor.

Lisbon also does not stand

Also in Lisbon, at 12:30 p.m. today, hundreds of people stayed overnight in Praça do Rossio, and from there they promised not to leave, despite the police's call for demobilization.

We will have to act, it may not be today ", said the official to the organizers of the camp, who argued that the "democratic right" of each protester should be respected in the public space.

According to Silva Resende, “the right of demonstration has been guaranteed” and “will always be guaranteed”, but “the occupation of the public space has rules” and “the camp cannot continue”.

The camp movement in Lisbon wants to continue to fight the housing crisis and bring down the new rental law, for increasing the precariousness of tenants and making it difficult for young people to find their homes.

General strike in sight?

Among the protesters, there is also talk of the possibility of a general strike, like those that dictated abandoning the labour package.

João Veloso, co-organizer of the camp, considered “very important this call to the union centers to combat the housing crisis” and “the cost of living”.

“What moves us is that we see that we work and that we arrive at the end of the month at zeros or negatives, right? And that's very basic, one, low wages, two, very high housing costs. So, all of this is a very solid basis of our movement”, he explained.

Fight against Rent law will give no rest to the government

The camp of housing requires, among others, the end of the reform of the rent law, approved in the specialty by the Right parties, more public housing park or the end of evictions for those who have no other option.

Among the main targets of the protest is Prime Minister Luís Montenegro – who, remember, asked last week the protesters of Porto not to be “selfish” – whose name appears on many of the posters. “Luís, selfishness is stealing our future” or “If there is no justice for the people, there will be no peace for the government” are some of the promises of protesters that guarantee: “we will only leave if our demands are met”.