Housing Protest Camps in Porto and Lisbon's Rossio Hold Through the Night Past the Legal Limit, as Porto's Mayor Invites Them to Talks and the Housing Minister Defends Him

The housing protest camps set up on Saturday afternoon in Porto's Praça D. João I and in Lisbon's Rossio held through the night, with protesters staying put past the 00:30 limit the law sets for open-air gatherings. As of the last overnight reports, police had not moved to clear either square.

In Porto, about 300 people were still in the square at around 04:00, with more than 50 tents pitched, according to Lusa via Notícias ao Minuto. Mariana Guedes, a spokeswoman for the Movimento pela Habitação, told the agency the group intended to stay and hoped for "no visit from the police", and certainly not a violent one. Shortly before 00:30 some bins nearby were set alight; firefighters quickly put them out.

In Lisbon, Observador reported that protesters formed a human chain around the tents at 00:30 and that several hundred people were still in Rossio at around 02:30, when organisers called for rest and for lookouts to watch for police. RTP put the number who pitched tents in Rossio on Saturday in the hundreds.

What the law says about staying overnight

Article 11 of Decreto-Lei n.º 406/74, the 1974 law on the right of assembly, says gatherings in public places may not continue beyond 00:30, unless held indoors or in buildings without residents. Article 5 allows the authorities to interrupt a gathering only in limited cases (for example, a serious disturbance of public order) and in writing. The PSP cited the 00:30 limit after its operation in Praça D. João I in the early hours of Thursday, which RTP reported left 39 people injured; the PSP says protesters resisted, and the movement says the camp was always peaceful. RTP reported that the internal affairs inspectorate, the IGAI, has opened a case into that operation.

Political reactions

Porto's mayor, Pedro Duarte, told TSF he would not attend the movement's assemblies but had invited the protesters on Thursday to meet at the council. Cristiana Leal, a Porto spokeswoman, replied that the invitation went only to the person who had filed the protest notice, and that any talks must be with the camp as a whole.

The housing minister, Miguel Pinto Luz, said in an Antena 1 and Jornal de Negócios interview, reported by RTP, that he viewed the protests with "enormous concern" because people protest when "there is pain". He also said delays in putting the necessary measures into effect were not the government's fault, and that Duarte had "defended the interests of the city of Porto".

The PCP leader, Paulo Raimundo, told RTP that the government's rental law rewrite must be defeated, calling it a law "made to measure for property funds" rather than ordinary tenants.

Elsewhere on Saturday, RTP reported about 200 people at a housing protest in Faro, and a coordinator of the Coimbra union federation put the CGTP march there at more than a thousand.

What happens next

The Lisbon camp scheduled a programme for Sunday morning: "popular boxing" at 10:00, a solidarity run and another assembly, Observador reported. Its assembly on Saturday approved six demands, including reversing the rental law, ending evictions and demolitions without rehousing, and affordable rent caps. In Porto, the camp had notified the council of a protest running until Tuesday 20 October; Leal told TSF the assembly decided to continue beyond that date and to inform the council.

For background, see our preview of Saturday's marches, our report on the first removal of the Porto tents on 12 October, and the new affordable-rent ceilings. Anyone passing through either square on Sunday should expect crowds and a police presence.