Portuguese police moved in before dawn on Sunday to dismantle protest camps in Lisbon and Porto, leaving dozens of demonstrators injured and at least 31 people under arrest. The operation, which began around 1 a.m. local time, targeted tent encampments that had become the focal point of weeks of demonstrations against soaring housing costs.
In Lisbon's Rossio Square, officers used batons to break up a human chain formed by protesters, while firecrackers and shouting added to the chaos. Similar scenes unfolded in Porto's Praça D. João I, where bystanders responded by singing "Grândola Vila Morena," the anthem of Portugal's 1974 Carnation Revolution that ended decades of authoritarian rule.
Police defend action, protesters allege intimidation
The Public Security Police (PSP) said in a statement on X that officers had intervened "to put an end to these illegal encampments" after dialogue failed. The force reported 31 arrests for disobedience, but did not comment on the injuries.
Catarina dos Santos, a spokeswoman for the Porto camp, told the Portuguese news agency Lusa that 37 people suffered minor injuries and two were arrested. "It is the third night in which we are being repressed with a method of total intimidation that one would never expect in a democratic country governed by the rule of law," she said.
Protesters described a heavy police presence, including canine units with at least 20 dogs, which they called disproportionate. "There were at least 20 crowd-control dogs, clearly agitated, and a number of weapons pointed at us, and if this is not intimidating and serious, I don't know what is," Santos added.
The camps had been a point of friction for weeks. On Saturday afternoon, police warned that tents would not be allowed to remain overnight in Rossio. Despite this, demonstrators voted to erect around 130 tents in the square, a decision that set the stage for the early-morning crackdown.
The operation was swift: tents were removed immediately, and protesters dispersed to nearby squares, vowing to return. A banner placed on the statue of D. Pedro IV in Rossio read, in Portuguese, "The fight goes on until nobody sleeps on the streets."
The housing protests are part of a broader wave of discontent across Europe over living costs and housing affordability. Similar demonstrations have erupted in other European cities, from Madrid to Rome, where youth-led protests have turned tense. In Portugal, the movement is demanding concrete policy changes: a reversal of the current tenancy law, an end to evictions for those without alternative housing, restrictions on property purchases by real-estate funds, rehabilitation of vacant buildings, and a cap on rents.
The government has yet to respond publicly to the latest crackdown. Critics argue that the heavy-handed police response risks alienating a population already struggling with one of the EU's highest housing cost burdens. Supporters of the protests point out that Portugal's housing crisis has been exacerbated by foreign investment and short-term rental platforms, squeezing locals out of city centers.
As dawn broke over Lisbon and Porto, the squares were quiet, but the underlying tensions remain unresolved. The protesters' promise to return suggests that this is not the end of the confrontation, but rather a pause in a struggle that has become a defining issue for many Portuguese.
