Portugal: Protest encampment demands affordable housing in Porto

Porto, Portugal – A protest encampment sprang up in the heart of Porto on October 10 demanding affordable housing and has now continued for many days. Inspired by the massive movement that brought hundreds of thousands of people out into the streets in Spain in recent weeks, on October 10 protesters rallied and then set up tents in Porto’s Praça Dom João I, with a banner reading, “Can’t afford rent? Bring a tent!”

After one night, police removed the tents from the plaza, and Porto’s Mayor Pedro Duarte said tents absolutely would not be allowed. Protesters continued occupying the plaza without tents.

Then on October 14 during an evening rally of around 1000 people, protesters again set up around a dozen tents in the plaza. Police quickly moved in to try to remove the tents but then retreated after the protesters refused to back down.

The demands of the Porto encampment are: Down with the new anti-tenant rent law that was just passed; stop evictions; halt the buying of housing stock by capitalist investment funds; more public housing; rehabilitation of vacant housing property, and put in place a rent ceiling

Portugal’s neighboring country of Spain has been convulsed since late September by mass protests demanding affordable housing and an end to evictions, after an 87-year-old woman named Maricarmen was evicted from the Madrid home where she had lived for more than 70 years, after an investment firm bought the property and jacked up her rent. In response, encampments and protests spread throughout Spain.

Then, about a week after her eviction, Maricarmen died, with most people placing the blame squarely on the government and naming her traumatic eviction as the cause of her death. Spain’s main unions have announced a general strike for November 11, and Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called snap elections after an attempt to pass new housing legislation in response to the crisis failed. The new elections are coming up November 29.

Housing costs have skyrocketed in major European cities over the past decade, while wages have stagnated. Rent in Portugal’s main cities of Lisbon and Porto has gone up even more than in Madrid and Barcelona in Spain. So, it’s no surprise that the movement sparked in Spain has now spread to Portugal. The Porto encampment is one of several that have sprung up in cities throughout Portugal this week.

The movement seems poised to gain momentum this weekend, as Portugal’s largest and most militant union federation, the General Confederation of Portuguese Workers (CGTP), is organizing mass demonstrations on Saturday, October 17 in Lisbon, Porto and Coimbra protesting the high cost of living while wages stagnate. The CGTP’s protests are demanding higher salaries, better pensions and public services, an end to the increasing cost of living, and defending the national health care system (SNS) and social security.

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