Police clear Lisbon and Porto housing camps for a third time, arresting 13 as Portugal's president asks for answers
PSP officers moved in at about 4.30am on Sunday 1 November. Police report six arrests in Lisbon, seven in Porto and 13 officers hurt in Porto. The camps say more than 60 protesters were injured. President Seguro has asked the government and the Ombudsman for a detailed account.
Portugal’s PSP police cleared the housing protest camps in Lisbon and Porto in the early hours of Sunday 1 November, for the third time in two weeks. Thirteen people were arrested, six in Lisbon and seven in Porto, according to the police.
The order to take the tents down came at around half past midnight, with a warning that anyone who stayed would be charged with disobedience. Officers moved in at about 4.30am, almost simultaneously in both cities. In Lisbon, Praça D. Pedro V was emptied within minutes and protesters were pushed back towards Rossio. In Porto it was Praça D. João I. Police removed 69 structures in Lisbon and 30 in Porto, with help from the municipal police.
Two sets of numbers
The PSP says 13 of its officers were hurt, all in Porto, and eight needed hospital treatment. It says force was only used after paint, bangers and bottles were thrown, and that some of the paint may have contained something flammable. It also confirmed that a plain-clothes officer in Porto drew his service weapon as a group approached, without firing. Police acknowledged civilian injuries but gave no figure.
The camps tell it differently. Lisbon’s organisers count more than 30 injured, ten of them taken to hospital. Porto’s count 35 minor injuries and three serious ones. Both say the protest was peaceful.
The first tents went up on Rossio on 17 October, at the end of a march. Police took them down before dawn on 20 October and again on 25 October, a few hours after the movement had filled Avenida da Liberdade. That second night ended with 31 arrests. Both times, the tents came back.
The president steps in
President António José Seguro has asked the government and the Ombudsman’s office for detailed information on what happened and on the condition of those arrested and injured. He spoke on Sunday morning with Prime Minister Luís Montenegro and with the Ombudsman, Luísa Neto.
Interior Minister Luís Neves said he was “very calm” about how the PSP had acted, and that his job is “permanently at the prime minister’s disposal”. The government says the operation was needed to restore public order.
What happens next
The Socialists want the minister in parliament urgently to explain how the operation was planned. Livre is calling for his resignation and says it will complain to the UN and the Council of Europe. Ricardo Sá Fernandes, the lawyer representing the Lisbon camp, says he will file a criminal complaint against the minister and the PSP’s national director.
Protesters point out that a public gathering in Portugal needs only advance notice, not permission, under the 1974 right-of-assembly law. The police say that right has limits and that they were crossed overnight. The Lisbon movement has called a fresh gathering on Rossio for Sunday afternoon.
Illustration: Tugadaily