Cops clear new Lisbon housing protest camp after thousands rally

Police moved into Lisbon’s Rossio Square on Sunday to clear a tent camp erected after thousands marched demanding Portugal’s minority centre-right government withdraw a rental bill they say would worsen the country’s housing crisis.

Portugal is grappling with one of Europe’s worst housing crises, with young people among those hardest hit. House prices have more than doubled since 2017 and rents for new leases have nearly doubled.

Protests over soaring housing costs have intensified in Portugal in recent weeks, mirroring similar unrest sweeping across Spain, France, Germany and elsewhere in Europe.

Protesters had pitched more than 50 tents in Rossio Square after a march through central Lisbon on Saturday that drew thousands.

Around 4.30am, dozens of officers, some with police dogs, moved in on the tent camp after police commander Iuri Rodrigues warned protesters three times that the illegally erected tents would be dismantled if not removed and that those who resisted could face disobedience charges.

Hundreds of protesters shielding the tent camp were dispersed by police using shields and some baton charges.

Separately, police dismantled a similar, though smaller, tent camp in Porto’s Dom Joao I square.

Earlier, Socialist lawmaker Pedro Delgado Alves said Rossio Square was peaceful and that nothing justified “a police intervention involving force, physical violence or baton charges, the kind of scenes we witnessed last week.”

Police have been criticised for baton-charging demonstrators and arresting dozens while clearing tent camps in the same squares a week ago.

Scrap the bill

The protesters are demanding the government scrap a bill making evictions easier and ending rent caps on new leases, which passed a first parliamentary reading with the abstention of the far-right Chega party.

Prime Minister Luis Montenegro on Thursday ruled out scrapping the bill but said he was open to amending it ahead of a final vote in coming weeks, saying parties “have to move closer” while making clear “the main line of action is the government’s programme”.

Socialist Party leader Jose Luis Carneiro urged the government on Saturday to engage in talks with opposition parties and protesters rather than “arrogantly imposing its views, sometimes even with authoritarian overtones”.

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