Porto Housing Camp Refuses to Leave Square for Christmas Market
Porto's housing protest camp voted to stay on Praça D. João I despite a Christmas market plan. Its list of demands has grown to nine, including local lodging.
The housing protest camp in Porto will stay on Praça D. João I, even though the city appears to want the square for Christmas events. The camp’s popular assembly turned down the idea at a meeting on Thursday evening, according to Observador and RTP Notícias.
The camp is part of the same movement that set up tents on Rossio in Lisbon. It has now widened its demands from six to nine, and one of them calls for a ban on new local lodging (alojamento local) licences in residential buildings, with existing ones revoked.
What the Câmara do Porto asked
The suggestion came in an email from the Câmara do Porto (Porto city hall), sent on Tuesday to invite the movement to a meeting. Spokesman Henrique Teixeira said the email mentioned “Christmas events” without giving details. He noted that the square has hosted things like skating rinks and markets in past years, and said the message indicated that some installations would go up there.
Many of the people who spoke at the assembly said they would not leave the spot, which the protesters chose on Oct. 10. Around 100 people attended. Space on the square has shrunk after about 30 donated tents arrived, which brought the total pitched there to nearly 50.
Teixeira also played down the arrival of rain. He said thousands of homeless people in Portugal sleep outside whatever the weather, and that the fight for decent housing goes on “rain or shine.” He said he expects the people who have held out for almost a month to keep going.
Protesters call government talks a “facade”
At the start of the assembly, which opened at about 8 p.m., a member of the organizing table described remarks by José Luís Carneiro, secretary-general of the Socialist Party (PS), after his meeting with government members. Carneiro said there was no agreement to start a new rental law from scratch. The camp’s representative told the crowd the result showed the government’s willingness to negotiate was only for show and said this came as no surprise. The camp, he said, is not tied to any party but is political.
The nine demands
The list grew after the assembly approved contributions from the groups Habitação Hoje and Chão das Lutas. The demands are:
- reversing the rental law;
- ending evictions and demolitions unless alternative housing is provided;
- a brake on property purchases by real estate funds;
- more public housing at supported rents (renda apoiada), replacing the earlier call for affordable rents;
- public recovery of vacant buildings;
- a cap on rents based on real incomes;
- pressure mechanisms to get empty homes onto the rental market;
- an end to tax breaks for property speculation;
- banning and revoking local lodging licences in residential buildings.
What it means for Lisbon
The protests began in Porto on Oct. 10 and later spread to Lisbon, with gatherings in other cities as well. When the PSP (Portugal’s public security police) moved to break up the camps and remove tents on Rossio and on Praça D. João I, dozens of people were arrested and dozens were injured. The police action drew criticism from several sides.
The rules on how late a protest can run are now under review. The Ministério Público (Portugal’s public prosecutor’s office) has asked the Tribunal Constitucional (the Constitutional Court) to rule on whether a 1974 rule that ends demonstrations at 00:30 is constitutional. That decision would apply to protests in Lisbon as well as Porto.
For tenants and local lodging owners in Lisbon, the demand list shows where the movement wants national housing policy to go, from rent caps tied to income to an end to short-term rental licences in homes.
Sources: Observador, RTP Notícias
