The silence of Portugal’s minority AD government in the face of ‘right to housing protests’, and the indignation arising from last night’s police charge on protesters, has seen LIVRE (left wing party) call for a strong position from President Seguro – and explanations from the Ministry of Interior Administration.
In a series of posts on the social media platform Bluesky, LIVRE spokesperson Jorge Pinto argued that “what police force can never silence is the voice of a people who are legitimately demanding the right to a home they can afford” and considered that the government and right-wing parties “are unable to provide an answer” to this, which is why “the truncheon is the easy way out”.
“On Thursday, at the meeting we will have with the President of the Republic, we will also urge António José Seguro to take a firm stance on what has happened in recent weeks. The silence to which the Prime Minister has accustomed us cannot be the silence of the President of the Republic,” stated the MP and former presidential candidate himself.
António José Seguro has summoned the parties with parliamentary representation to hearings on social cohesion, which will take place on Thursday – the day after the debate and vote on the 2027 State Budget.
The president has also convened a Council of State for 2 November to discuss the same issue.
Jorge Pinto also added that he will once again seek explanations from the Ministry of Internal Administration regarding what happened in the early hours of this morning – wanting to know “who gave the orders and how this could have happened”.
“The Prime Minister was concerned about the importation of protest models; let us hope, however, that the police brutality we see in other countries is not imported. Portugal deserves better,” he added.
The party’s other spokesperson and parliamentary leader, Isabel Mendes Lopes, took to the same social media platform to describe last night as “appalling”.
“Democracy is also lost when the State chooses violence against its citizens. And tonight was a deliberate and planned choice, which makes it all the more unacceptable,” she criticised.
Rui Tavares, an MP and former spokesperson for LIVRE, also criticised “legally misguided and politically disastrous police charges” and called on the Prime Minister to “back down immediately on the rent law” – the law that even experts agree heavily tilts rental policy towards the benefit of landlords.
In the early hours of this morning, the police used batons to disperse demonstrations for the right to housing in two simultaneous operations in Lisbon and Porto, following more than two hours of tension and unheeded orders to disperse, in order to remove tents set up by demonstrators campaigning for the right to housing.
The PSP’s orders at Rossio in Lisbon and Praça D. João I in Porto began at 00:30, the time at which, according to the police, the gatherings should have ended, but the intervention by the Special Police Unit did not take place until around 02:00 (one hour after the switch to winter time).
According to the PSP, seven people were injured and 31 arrested for disobedience; however, in a statement published on social media, the Lisbon Camp claims that dozens were injured, some seriously.
PS Socialists meantime have also convened a press conference in Porto for 11.30 this morning to discuss what they call last night’s “episodes of violence”.
Source: LUSA