Lisbon (AFP) – After being evacuated several times by the police, dozens of activists for housing rights in Portugal were able to spend the night from Tuesday to Wednesday in tents set up in the center of Lisbon and Porto.

Published on: 04/11/2026 - 11:39

On Rossio Square, in the heart of the Portuguese capital, around sixty camping tents were arranged in a row at the foot of a statue, noted an AFP journalist.

In Porto, the large city in the north of the country, the camp had around thirty tents, local media reported.

"I'm happy that we managed to spend the night here, that was our goal. (...) We didn't know what was going to happen, if the police were going to come or not," said Rui Coelho, a 35-year-old protester employed in a call center, in Lisbon.

Inspired by the protest movement which arose at the end of September in neighboring Spain, after the expulsion of an octogenarian from Madrid, Portuguese activists for the right to housing saw their camps evacuated by the police on several occasions.

Just last weekend, the police removed dozens of tents set up in Lisbon and Porto, charging the protesters with batons and making 13 arrests.

Police reported 13 injuries among their ranks in Porto, while emergency services recorded 25 protesters lightly injured during the two interventions.

But, in the meantime, the Lisbon administrative court, seized by a Lisbon activist, authorized her to spend the night in a tent, contradicting the police argument according to which it would be forbidden to demonstrate after midnight.

In response to calls for dialogue launched by the President of the Republic, the socialist Antonio José Seguro, the right-wing Prime Minister, Luis Montenegro, announced Tuesday evening that he would meet with opposition leaders to discuss measures to overcome the housing crisis.

“It is true that we have a serious problem regarding housing,” he admitted, adding however that “we need time for the measures to produce the desired effects.”

Mr. Montenegro, who does not have an absolute majority in Parliament, particularly insisted on his desire to obtain the support of the opposition to adopt a reform project which would notably simplify and accelerate the evictions of tenants.

The withdrawal of this project, adopted at first reading thanks to the abstention of the far right, is one of the demands of the activists who set up camps in Lisbon and Porto.

© 2026 AFP

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