Housing activists in Porto are accusing Portuguese police of using excessive force during a pre-dawn operation on Thursday to dismantle a protest camp in the central Praça D. João I. The Housing Movement, which organised the demonstration, said 37 people were hurt, two of them suffering fractures, when officers moved in at around 3am to remove tents and disperse those present.
The group described the police action as "disproportionate and unjustified", insisting the camp had been peaceful since it was set up on Saturday and had never incited violence. A spokesperson for the movement, Pedro Manuel, told the Lusa news agency that the protest had been authorised until 20 June.
Escalation after warnings from city hall
The confrontation followed a public assembly on Wednesday at which demonstrators decided to continue their action over Portugal's housing crisis and to re-pitch tents overnight. Porto's mayor, Pedro Duarte, had said earlier in the day that the square would not be allowed to become a campsite. "We will be absolutely ruthless with any attempt to erect tents in that area," he said on the sidelines of the Fábrica 2030 conference, while stressing that the right to demonstrate was not in question but could not clash with the freedoms of other residents.
According to Pedro Manuel, a first attempt to clear the site came at around 2am, with cleaning vehicles deployed to push protesters out. He said demonstrators formed a peaceful human chain to protect their tents and that there was no confrontation at that stage. The operation resumed an hour later, when, he alleged, police began "harassing protesters with brutality" in what he called a "criminal" intervention.
"They waited until the media had left and then drove away in their vehicles," Manuel said. "At around 3am, they came back, and we formed a human chain again, peacefully, to defend our right to protest and keep the tents."
Leonor Figueiredo, another representative of the movement, told CNN Portugal that the camp had been entirely peaceful and that there was therefore no justification for the police action. She linked the crackdown to the mayor's earlier rhetoric: "Pedro Duarte said he was going to be ruthless and now we have seen it, we have understood the message."
Police say force was necessary
A source at the Porto Metropolitan Command of the Public Security Police (PSP) confirmed to Euronews that "a more forceful intervention was necessary" at the site, but said it was too early to give details, including casualty figures. The force said the protest had been fully dispersed and that "nothing further remains" in the square.
The episode in Porto is the latest flashpoint in a wider European debate over housing affordability and the policing of protest. In Madrid, a housing protest in Puerta del Sol has held out for two weeks, while French cities have seen clashes during student demonstrations over living costs and government policy. Portugal's own government has acknowledged the pressure, with recent budget measures targeting housing and tax relief, though activists argue the response remains insufficient.
By Thursday morning, the square had been cleared and the tents removed. The Housing Movement has vowed to continue its campaign, and it remains unclear whether further protests will be authorised in the coming days. For now, the dispute has sharpened tensions between Porto's municipal leadership and a movement that says it is fighting for the right to a home in one of Western Europe's most strained property markets.
