Police cleared Rossio again. Should the minister go?

Police cleared the housing camps in Lisbon and Porto for a third time in the early hours of Sunday. It’s Monday, 2 November. Twenty-four degrees. Air quality: 32 to 58 (Good to Moderate). Here’s what you need to know.

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POLICE CLEAR THE HOUSING CAMPS FOR A THIRD TIME, AND THE CALLS FOR ACCOUNTABILITY GROW

After thousands marched through Lisbon on Saturday, protesters put up dozens of tents in Rossio. Police warned them three times to take the tents down. When they stayed up, riot officers with shields moved in at around 4:30am on Sunday, some with dogs, and police cleared Porto’s Praça D. João I at the same time. Protesters had linked arms around the camp, and left-wing MPs standing at the front were pulled away. Within about ten minutes, both squares were almost empty.

Police say protesters threw paint they suspect was mixed with something flammable, as well as bottles and fireworks, and that they found three Molotov cocktails in Rossio on Sunday. Protesters and several media outlets report people being struck with batons, at least one journalist among them, and a police officer firing warning shots into the air. Police arrested 13 people, six in Lisbon and seven in Porto, and say 13 officers were hurt. The protest movement says more than 30 people were injured, ten of whom went to hospital. Observers from the Ombudsman’s office watched the arrests.

President Seguro has asked the government and the Ombudsman for full details of the arrests and injuries. The interior minister, Luís Neves, blamed “a small fringe” of protesters for undermining the law, said the PSP, the Public Security Police, decides for itself how to enforce it, and said his job is in the prime minister’s hands. Livre, a small green-left party, wants him to resign and is complaining to the Council of Europe’s human rights commissioner and the UN, and the Communist Party wants an urgent debate in parliament. The lawyer Ricardo Sá Fernandes, who represents arrested protesters, says he’ll file criminal complaints for abuse of power against Neves and the PSP’s national director. On the right, Chega’s André Ventura accused the prime minister of “total ineptitude” for letting housing become a public order issue, and says his party will present its own housing measures next week.

Protesters gathered in both squares again on Sunday afternoon, now also protesting against police violence, and say they’ll return every day. Those arrested in Porto are due in court today, and the Council of State, the president’s top advisory body, meets to discuss social cohesion. Behind it all is a housing shortage the Bank of Portugal puts at 300,000 homes, about as many as Lisbon has in total, while house prices have more than doubled since 2017. The rent bill at the heart of the protests is still due a final vote in the coming weeks, and the prime minister is open to amending it but not to dropping it.

Bottom line: Three clearances haven’t stopped the protests, and the pressure is now on the interior minister as much as on the rent law.

⚡ QUICK HITS

Orders from Shein, Temu and other sites outside the EU now carry a new €2 handling fee. Since Sunday, the EU charges €2 plus VAT for each type of item in a parcel from outside the EU, on top of the €3 customs charge per type that has applied to orders under €150 since July. Types are counted by category, not quantity, so five T-shirts count once, but a watch, jumpers and jewellery count three times. The platform or seller has to pay, so most shoppers will see the fees in the price at checkout. If a seller hasn’t charged them upfront, CTT, the postal service, will ask you to pay before it delivers, and may add its own clearance charge.

Italy wants Europe to stop changing the clocks, but nothing is changing yet. An Italian MP, Andrea Barabotti, has asked his government to restart EU talks on keeping summer time all year. Italy’s grid operator estimates it would save another 160 million kilowatt-hours of electricity a year, and supporters say lighter evenings would help businesses and tourism, though winter mornings would be darker. Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, also wants the changes scrapped. But an EU plan to end them has been stuck since 2019, so the clocks go forward as usual on Sunday 28 March 2027.

Mortgage payments are going up again this month, even though the European Central Bank held interest rates. The ECB left rates unchanged last Thursday, but Euribor, the rate most Portuguese variable-rate mortgages follow, has already risen because markets expect the ECB to raise rates on 17 December. If your mortgage is reviewed this month, expect to pay roughly €17 to €89 more a month on a €150,000 loan, depending on whether it tracks the three, six or 12-month rate. A December rise could push payments up again in the new year.

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🍽️ SPOT OF THE DAY

OLÍVIA (AVENIDAS NOVAS)

Olívia opened in 2022 as the third café from the team behind Nicolau in the Baixa and Amélia, and it’s the well-travelled one of the family. The result is an all-day café on Avenida do Marquês de Tomar where brunch is served every day, and where the group’s brunch staples share the menu with pizzas and sharing plates borrowing from Asia and the Middle East. The room is full of plants, and a terrace out front makes the most of warm days like this one.

Recent reviewers single out the pancakes, the toasts and the fresh juices, and regulars rate it highly. Past menus have also featured duck tacos, roast pumpkin, ceviche and a gooey Olívia cookie with cream cheese and berries, and the bar mixes cocktails such as pisco sours and margaritas, so it works as well for an early evening drink as for a late breakfast.

It’s open daily from 9am. Reviews are more mixed beyond its regulars, and some diners find the portions small.

→ Find them here ←

Insider tip: the group’s other cafés are known for weekend queues, so come on a weekday morning, when brunch is just as available and tables are easier to get.

📅 WHAT’S ON

See you tomorrow morning.

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