31 arrests, and the backlash to Portugal’s housing crackdown is growing

Police baton-charged the housing camps in Lisbon and Porto in the early hours of Sunday. It’s Monday, 26 October. Twenty degrees. Air quality: 15 to 40 (Good to Fair). Here’s what you need to know.

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POLICE BATON-CHARGE THE HOUSING CAMPS IN LISBON AND PORTO, AND THE BACKLASH SPREADS

Hours after Saturday’s march, police cleared the housing protest camps in Rossio and in Porto’s Praça D. João I in the early hours of Sunday. In Lisbon, officers with dogs began moving in on more than 100 tents just after 2am, using batons as protesters linked arms and chanted that it smelled like a dictatorship. Police made 31 arrests for disobedience, 25 in Lisbon and six in Porto, and the Lisbon detainees, since released, are due in court today. Police reported seven minor injuries among officers and protesters. The activist group Casa para Viver, Homes to Live, says 60 people were hurt.

It came a day after the PSP, the Public Security Police, had said it would prioritise dialogue. The police said the operation followed the end of that dialogue and was proportionate, and that they had warned on Saturday afternoon that tents would not be allowed to stay overnight. Protesters voted to put them up anyway.

The criticism came quickly, and not only from the left. Amnesty International Portugal called the use of force excessive and disproportionate and demanded an urgent investigation. More than 200 lawyers and legal professionals signed an open letter defending the right to protest. Mariana Leitão, leader of the pro-market Liberal Initiative, wrote that “repression is not acceptable, and resolves nothing”. Chega’s André Ventura backed the police unconditionally, calling the protesters a minority of vandals.

The interior minister, Luís Neves, said nobody was happy about anyone being hurt, but argued that the camp raised health and safety problems and that Lisbon city council had already spent more than €100,000 cleaning the statue in Rossio. He also had to clarify an earlier claim that he had seen batons used only once. As of Sunday evening, the prime minister had not commented, and members of President António José Seguro’s own honorary committee, among them the musician Pedro Abrunhosa, had urged the president to speak: “Your silence does not quell the violence,” they wrote.

Crowds were back in the squares of both cities by Sunday evening. Casa para Viver has called a protest outside parliament on Tuesday, the same day the 55 people detained at Rossio the previous week are due in court. MPs hold the first vote on the 2027 budget on Wednesday, and on Thursday the president sees the parties one by one about social cohesion. Behind it all is a squeeze that has seen house prices more than doubling since 2017 and new-lease rents almost doubling, with the Bank of Portugal estimating a shortfall of 300,000 homes.

Bottom line: Two police clearances in a week haven’t ended the camps, and with a budget vote and the president’s talks coming, the government is under pressure to answer on housing, not just on policing.

⚡ QUICK HITS

Portugal’s total debt rose to €892.8 billion in August, close to its June record. The Bank of Portugal’s figures cover households, companies and the state together, a broader measure than government debt alone. They rose by €3.6 billion in the month, just short of the €894 billion peak reached in June. Household debt grew by €1.3 billion to €187.1 billion, and €1 billion of that was new mortgage borrowing, a sign that demand for home loans is holding up. Public sector debt rose by €2.6 billion to €388.7 billion, while company debt fell by €300 million.

Portugal’s security services are monitoring reported jihadist calls for attacks during the protests. Spain’s El País reported on Friday that a Spanish interior ministry document had found messages on a website allegedly linked to the Islamic State group, urging attacks on police and protesters at the demonstrations in Portugal, Spain, France and Italy. Portugal’s Internal Security System, which coordinates the country’s police and intelligence services, said it was “closely monitoring” the situation in constant contact with the relevant authorities.

New EU labelling rules for vegetarian food could catch meat-flavoured crisps, or chips. EU lawmakers have agreed to ban 31 meat terms, including bacon, beef, ribs, chicken and wing, from products that contain no meat, while still allowing labels such as “veggie burger” and “meat-free sausage”. Snack makers now fear that flavours like “barbecue beef” or “flame-grilled steak” could fall foul of the rules, and the European Snacks Association is asking for an exemption for flavourings. Some MEPs want to go further and ban words like “burger”, “sausage” and “nugget” too, which the centre-right European People’s Party opposes. The rules came into force on 18 August, but with a three-year transition, the ban won’t apply until August 2029.

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🍽️ SPOT OF THE DAY

O TREVO (CHIADO)

O Trevo’s griddle sits right behind the window on Praça Luís de Camões, so you can watch the bifanas cook before you’ve even walked in. The pork is fried in thin slices and stuffed into a crisp roll, ready for mustard or chilli oil, and it’s the sandwich Anthony Bourdain praised when he filmed here. But the regulars’ secret is the canja, the chicken and rice soup, which Time Out rates among the best in the city and which is on every day.

The room is small and spartan, with a few tables packed close, a counter, glass cases of salgados, the fried snacks, and a tile portrait of Camões on the wall. The faded “Leitaria Trevo” lettering over the entrance is a reminder that it started life as a dairy. Beyond the bifana, there are pataniscas de bacalhau, the salt cod fritters, prawn rissóis and a cheap daily lunch.

Worth knowing before you go: it’s open Monday to Saturday from 7am to 9pm and closed on Sundays. It’s cash only, and a bifana and a small beer still cost only a few euros. It’s busy at almost any hour, so expect to squeeze in at the counter to order.

→ Find them here ←

Insider tip: check the paper tablecloth hung up outside, which is where the day’s lunch dishes are written up.

📅 WHAT’S ON

See you tomorrow morning.

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