About 200 housing rights protesters spent Wednesday night outdoors in a square in central Lisbon, according to AFP journalists. They stayed despite police having cleared their tents the day before. The protests aim to draw attention to Portugal’s housing crisis, driven by sharply rising property prices.
Police Clear Camps in Lisbon and Porto
In the early hours of Tuesday, police broke up two protest camps that activists had set up in Lisbon and in Porto, in the north of the country. Officers seized 228 tents. In the capital, 55 people were arrested and two were slightly injured.
In Lisbon, the activists at first tried to slow the police operation by forming a human chain. Clashes with officers followed.
Protesters Choose Not to Rebuild the Camp
The activists had been gathered in Rossio Square, in the heart of the Portuguese capital, since Saturday. They decided not to put the tents back up in defiance of the police monitoring the gathering. Organizers put the question of whether to continue the mobilization to a vote among the protesters. They also announced plans for a demonstration in central Lisbon on Saturday.
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A Crisis Driven by Soaring Prices
The protests focus on the growing difficulty of finding affordable housing in Portugal as property prices keep rising. For many residents, especially young people, renting or buying a home in the country’s main cities has become increasingly out of reach.
Looking to Spain
The activists drew inspiration from protest camps in Spain, including the one in Madrid’s landmark Puerta del Sol square. Some hope to coordinate action across the Iberian Peninsula. That could turn local camps into a wider regional movement over the cost of housing.