Thousands of people came out on Tuesday evening, 20 October, in Lisbon, Porto and other Portuguese cities, against the lack of affordable housing. Radio Romania Actualități repeated the story on 21 October. This is a street protest, not a law voted that night.

A few hours earlier, at dawn, the PSP took down the tents in the protest camps. Público writes that the action was almost simultaneous, a little before 6.00: in Porto, in Praça D. João I, protesters complied at once; at Rossio, in Lisbon, police detained 55 people. There were shields and dogs. In Lisbon there were clashes; protesters regrouped in Praça da Figueira.

Interior minister Luís Neves had said, before dawn, that the PSP would not exceed the powers the law gives it and that the right to demonstrate is respected. That is not a new law and does not close the protest.

On Tuesday evening, agency tallies speak of thousands, not millions. At Rossio, a popular assembly voted by a show of hands to put tents back up from Wednesday. On an improvised stage Ana Moura, Dino D’Santiago and Tim, of Xutos & Pontapés, performed. The plan to pitch tents again is an assembly decision, not a permit and not a court ruling.

In Porto, where the movement began earlier this month, people returned on Tuesday afternoon to Praça D. João I, then toward City Hall. Clã and Capicua played. Banners read “Luxury rents, garbage wages.” A chant named mayor Pedro Duarte. Last Thursday, at the same square, a PSP operation had injured several people; that is an earlier incident, not Tuesday’s tally.

Euronews Portugal and RTP also noted protests in other cities: more than 400 people in Coimbra, about 100 in Évora, dozens in Faro, about 50 in Leiria and Beja. In Évora a new gathering was set for Friday. The figures are press estimates, not an official census.

The protest also targets measures announced by Luís Montenegro’s government: a more flexible cap on annual rent rises and easier eviction of tenants who do not pay. The government says it wants trust between tenant and landlord and a stronger rental market. The opposition and protesters call the measures inhumane. That is a policy announcement, not Tuesday’s vote.

A court action, reported by Público, seeks to keep the protest going until the budget vote. It is an open case, not a ruling. Until a law or a judgment exists, the closed fact is Tuesday night: thousands in the street, 55 detained at Rossio at dawn, tents taken down by police, an assembly that wants them back.

Image: Anton Zelenov, Rossio (Praca Dom Pedro IV), Lisbon, 5 November 2011, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons; illustration of the square, not the 20 October camp.

Sources consulted: Portugalia: Proteste din cauza crizei imobiliare - Radio Romania Actualitati; PSP retira tendas e detem 55 pessoas - Publico.