Police Break Up the Rossio and Porto Housing Camps a Second Time, Detaining 31 People Who Go Before the Courts on Monday

Riot police broke up the housing protest camps on Lisbon's Rossio and on Porto's Praça D. João I at about 2am on Sunday, hours after Saturday's housing marches. The PSP detained 31 people for disobedience, 25 in Lisbon and six in Porto, and by its latest count, sent to the Lusa news agency at about 05:45, 11 people were injured. All 31 are due before the judicial authorities on Monday, according to the PSP statement reported by Lusa.

It is the second clearance of both squares in under a week. Police first removed the camps at dawn on Tuesday 20 October, when 55 people were detained on the Rossio. The tents went back up on Saturday evening after marches in Lisbon and Porto.

What happened overnight

The PSP had warned on Saturday that it would not allow tents on the Rossio overnight. The Acampada de Lisboa counted 130 tents in the square at about 22:00, with about 300 people planning to sleep in them; in Porto, an assembly voted to camp again. Police say the protests could legally run only until 00:30, and after repeated warnings both groups formed human chains around the tents.

In Porto the operation began at 02:02, RTP reported. In Lisbon, Lusa saw officers using batons and shields push protesters towards Praça da Figueira, leaving the Rossio empty by 02:10; council cleaning crews were in the square by 02:18.

The PSP's figures, as given to Lusa:

• Detentions: 31, all for disobedience (25 in Lisbon, six in Porto).
• Injured: a first tally at 04:20 gave seven; the 05:45 update gave 11 (five in Lisbon, six in Porto), three of them police officers and eight protesters. One of the officers was injured by a protester's dog in Lisbon.
• Tents: 171 camping structures removed and seized by the municipal police, 117 in Lisbon and 54 in Porto.
• Seized in Porto: a firecracker, three paint tins the PSP says were thrown at officers, and a pepper spray canister.

The Porto organisers give much higher figures. Their spokesperson, Catarina dos Santos, told journalists of a preliminary count of about 37 people with light injuries and five more receiving medical care, RTP reported; a later Lusa report quoted the movement as counting 37 injured, seven of them seriously, and nine detained. About 200 protesters then held a vigil outside the PSP's Heroísmo station, where they believe the Porto detainees were taken.

The two sides' case

The PSP says it acted to restore "legality in the occupation of public spaces" after tents were set up without legal authorisation and public property was damaged. The protests had been notified to the authorities, it said, but that "does not exempt" them from the time limits and the rules on using public space. It says it respects the constitutional right of assembly.

The movements argue that Article 45 of the Constitution protects their protest and that it outranks Decreto-Lei 406/74, the 1974 right-of-assembly decree that police have invoked, a spokesperson for the Lisbon camp told Lusa last week. They want the new rental law withdrawn, rent caps and more public housing. By early Sunday morning no reaction to the clearances had been reported from the government or either city's mayor.

What happens next

• Monday 26 October: the 31 people detained overnight are due before the judicial authorities.
• Tuesday 27 October: the 55 people detained on the Rossio on 20 October are due before a judge, Lusa reported.
• The squares: the Porto spokesperson said "nobody is leaving the square" until the movement's demands are heard. Both protests have been running since mid-October.