The march is over. The housing protest isn’t.

Yesterday’s march has ended, but the protest is still going. It’s Sunday, 18 October. Twenty-four degrees. Air quality: 40 (Good). Here’s what you need to know.

🗞️ TOP STORY

THE MARCH IS OVER, BUT THE HOUSING PROTEST ISN’T: TENTS GO UP IN ROSSIO

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of central Lisbon yesterday over housing and the cost of living, and when the march ended, a housing camp went up in Rossio. The march, from Cais do Sodré to Rossio, was called by the CGTP, Portugal’s biggest trade union confederation, which said “many tens of thousands” took part. The police didn’t give a figure. There were also marches in Porto and Coimbra in the morning. The CGTP is calling for higher wages, including pay rises of 15%, better pensions and stronger public services.

From just after 5pm, hundreds of people put up tents in Rossio under a heavy police presence, jangling their keys in the air and holding an evening assembly, with plans to stay the night and possibly longer. No police action had been reported by early evening. In Porto, protesters returned to the square of Praça D. João I, where police cleared their camp on Thursday. The IGAI, the inspectorate that oversees the police, has opened an inquiry into that operation.

The President, António José Seguro, used yesterday’s International Day for the Eradication of Poverty to say that no one should live without access to housing, healthcare, education or decent work, and that poverty “cannot be seen as inevitable”. On Friday, he warned that a Europe where so many young people can’t afford a home risks losing their trust.

The government is holding its line. On Friday, Prime Minister Luís Montenegro condemned “direct threats” against his home and family, after a video showed a protest speaker calling for his address to be found and a brick thrown at it. It isn’t yet clear where or when the video was recorded, and the housing movement has distanced itself from the threats and called for calm. Montenegro said he respects the right to protest, and pointed to his government’s housing record, including a raised target of 59,000 new and renovated homes under the EU-funded recovery plan, and tax breaks and a state-backed mortgage guarantee for first-time buyers aged up to 35. His parliamentary affairs minister, Carlos Abreu Amorim, said the government “will not yield to shouts from the street”. The leader of the Socialist Party (PS), José Luís Carneiro, called the situation “a social powder keg”, and repeated his call for the government’s rental law to be shelved.

The figures help explain the anger. Prices rose 3.6% in the year to September, the price of a home has more than doubled since 2017, and rents on new contracts are close to double what they were. And it’s not just Portugal: France saw cost-of-living protests yesterday that ended in clashes with police, and there were smaller demonstrations in Belgium.

If you’re heading through the Baixa today, expect the camp in Rossio and a police presence around it. Housing groups have called a public assembly for 3pm in Largo de São Domingos, next to Rossio, and marches are planned in Lisbon and Porto on 14 November.

Bottom line: in a week, the housing protests have grown from a camp in Porto to tens of thousands on Lisbon’s streets, and the government says it won’t change course.

⚡ QUICK HITS

Diesel is set to rise again this week, while petrol gets slightly cheaper. According to forecasts from the ACP, the national motoring association, diesel will go up by about 4.5 cents a litre from tomorrow, to an average of around €2.189, while petrol falls by about 1.5 cents, to around €2.10. That would leave diesel almost 9 cents a litre dearer than petrol at the pump. Fuel prices are up around 15% on a year ago, driven largely by tensions in the Middle East, and they’ve fed into the inflation figures behind this weekend’s protests. The numbers are forecasts and can change with oil prices, and prices vary from one petrol station to the next.

The tiger mosquito has now been found in 40 municipalities in Portugal, including Lisbon. It was confirmed last year in Lisbon, Oeiras, Almada and Sesimbra. The species can carry viruses such as dengue, Zika and chikungunya, but the DGS, the national health authority, says finding the mosquito doesn’t mean the viruses are circulating. There have been no locally transmitted cases. All 18 dengue cases and four chikungunya cases recorded in Portugal this year were caught abroad, and mosquito samples tested so far have been virus-free. The 40 municipalities are on the lowest alert level, which means closer monitoring. The DGS advises emptying standing water from plant-pot saucers, buckets and gutters, using insect repellent, and reporting sightings through the MosquitoWeb and Mosquito Alert websites.

Lisbon metro workers have called two more partial strikes, on Wednesday 28 and Friday 30 October. Both run from 5am to 10am, covering the whole morning rush hour. The metro normally opens at 6:30am, so in practice there may be no trains until mid-morning. The unions say the dispute is the same one behind last Wednesday’s 24-hour strike, which shut the network for a full day: staff shortages in the control centre, excessive overtime and delays in training supervisors. The metro company has called the strikes disproportionate, says the issues affect about 100 workers, and points to a recruitment and training plan due to be finished in the second half of December. It will ask for minimum services to be set this time. None were set for the last strike. We’ll remind you the day before each one.

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🍽️ SPOT OF THE DAY

MORI (ALVALADE)

You’ll spot Mori by its cobalt-blue awning on Rua Marquesa de Alorna, and the terrace tables made from stacked blue crates. Inside, a mural of Japanese plants, koi carp and lanterns covers the walls. It opened in September, the latest venture from the Capricciosa group, the people behind Doca de Santo and Selllva. Mori means “forest” in Japanese, and it calls itself a “sando~wich bar”, serving Japanese-style sandwiches on shokupan, the soft, fluffy Japanese milk bread.

There are four sandos, all on shokupan that’s lightly toasted, so it stays soft inside with a crisp edge. The Tokyo chicken parm is the one to start with: crisp chicken, creamy miso mayonnaise and sharp cucumber pickles, so every bite goes from crunchy to creamy. The smash-i-moto is a double smash burger with sweet onion jam, cheddar and bacon. The vegetarian nasu crush is fried breaded eggplant with smoked sriracha mayonnaise, and makes a good case for eggplant, while the hot tuna pairs spicy marinated tuna with egg salad and nori in a long bun. On the side, there are fries and coleslaw. Sandos start at €9.90, and most people spend €10 to €20 a head.

Worth knowing before you go: it’s tiny, with eight seats inside and eight outside, and is built for quick meals and takeaway. It’s open every day from noon to 11pm.

→ Find them here ←

Insider tip: if you’re avoiding bread, you can ask for any sando without it. They’ll serve the filling without the shokupan for the same price.

📅 WHAT’S ON

See you tomorrow morning.

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