The PSP has today deployed police forces to monitor demonstrations for the right to housing in various towns and cities across the country – with particular focus on Lisbon and Porto – stating that it will continue to prioritise dialogue with demonstrators.
In a statement regarding the deployment for the demos, the PSP states that the priority “is to guarantee the right to assembly and demonstration, while ensuring that all events take place peacefully and safely”.
According to the statement, traffic units have been mobilised to assist with the management of road restrictions, alongside rapid response teams, while resources from the Special Police Unit – namely the Intervention Corps and the Cinotechnical Operational Group – are on standby.
“Our approach will continue to prioritise dialogue, communication and mediation with demonstrators, with a view to prevention and the proportionate management of any incidents,” the police state.
The PSP notes that, so far, “the situation is proceeding peacefully”, with police “carrying out a dynamic and continuous risk assessment, adjusting their deployment in line with how events develop”.
Police also report that they “are monitoring information available from open sources, including online, in order to better understand how events are unfolding and publicly stated intentions, thereby enabling them to anticipate and manage any risks appropriately”.
Protests for the right to housing with demonstrations and public assemblies are scheduled across the country, organised by sundry civic movements, to demand measures to address the crisis/ the cost of living, etc.
Two weeks after they began in Porto, protests for the right to housing are fulfilling the promise to remain on the streets until the government scraps the new rent law and adopts measures such as an end to evictions without alternative housing (and demolitions of illegal homes), a ban on property purchases by real estate funds, an increase in social housing, the introduction of rent caps, and the repurposing of vacant properties for housing.
Source material: LUSA
Natasha Donn
Journalist for the Portugal Resident.