Police dismantle housing protest camps in Portugal

• Portuguese police raided protest tent camps in Lisbon on Oct 20, clashing with housing protesters and arresting several dozen people.
• The protests target soaring housing costs and rental reforms that protesters say will make eviction easier. They accuse the government of failing to act.
• Tensions rose after a human chain formed in Rossio square. Protesters said about 30 people were injured, and some vowed to rebuild the camp.

LISBON – Portuguese police on Oct 20 clashed with housing protesters in a dawn raid as they dismantled tent camps in the capital Lisbon, arresting 55 people.

Demonstrators in Portugal are protesting soaring housing costs, seeking to align themselves with similar actions in neighbouring Spain, where tents have been set up in central Madrid for weeks.

The weekend violence that flared in France on the sidelines of peaceful cost-of-living protests has raised alarm that the mayhem could spread to other countries with similar demonstrations.

Following an Oct 17 demonstration in Lisbon, dozens of tents were set up in Lisbon’s central Rossio square.

As the police moved in on the morning of Oct 20, protesters formed a human chain before clashes broke out, according to footage broadcast by local TV stations.

“The individuals taken into custody were brought to police facilities and will be brought before the competent judicial authority as soon as possible,” the police said in a statement.

Law enforcement authorities, who also seized “228 camping structures”, concluded that the gatherings were no longer legal.

The protesters accuse the government of failing to act to tackle Portugal’s housing crisis, and trying to push through rental market reforms that will make eviction easier.

According to the protesters, some 30 demonstrators were injured and arrested on Oct 20.

Some protesters vowed to try to set up the camp again in the coming hours.

A large police presence was deployed on the morning of Oct 20 in the city centre.

In Porto, where the movement began earlier in October, demonstrators dismantled their camp themselves in the face of threats of a police intervention.

The nearly four weeks of protests in Spain that erupted after the eviction of an 87-year-old woman from her lifelong home led to the calling of a snap general election for Nov 29. AFP