“This salary isn’t enough to live on”

Thousands marched in Lisbon and Porto with one message: the pay isn’t enough. It’s Monday, 12 October. Twenty-three degrees. Air quality: 25 (Good). Here’s what you need to know.

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THOUSANDS PROTEST THE COST OF LIVING: “LET’S DO IT LIKE THEY DO IN SPAIN”

Thousands of people marched in Lisbon and Porto on Saturday against rising living costs, unaffordable housing and wages they say no longer cover the basics. The protests were called by a coalition of groups under the banner “Não dá mais para viver assim” (We can’t go on living like this), which also organised marches in Aveiro, Braga and Funchal. In Lisbon, the crowd filled Largo do Intendente before the protest had even started, and in Porto around 1,500 people reportedly turned out.

The placards were blunt. “This salary isn’t enough to live on” was the main message, and one sign read “I want to move out of my parents’ house before I’m 50.” The coalition brings together more than 30 organisations, from trade unions to housing-rights, climate and equality groups. It’s calling for price controls on essential goods and fuel, a tax on windfall profits in banking, energy and retail, and action on housing.

Spain was on many people’s minds. One sign in Porto read “let’s do it like they do in Spain”. In Spain, the eviction of 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal, who later died, set off housing protests that piled pressure on the government. When its emergency housing law then failed to pass, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called a snap election for late November. One protester in Lisbon told Lusa, Portugal’s national news agency, that she’d seen the march on Instagram and come because “enough is enough”.

Opposition politicians joined in. José Manuel Pureza of the Left Bloc said more and more people can’t pay their bills while a few make “astronomical profits”, called the government’s 2027 budget a “blank cheque” and called for limits on rent rises. Isabel Mendes Lopes of Livre, one of the smaller left-wing parties, said Prime Minister Luís Montenegro was “living in a bubble”, pointing to the government’s definition of a “moderate” rent as anything up to €2,300 a month.

Separately, Lisbon City Council has begun handing over the first 60 keys in a new affordable housing development in Marvila. The two buildings on Rua Ferreira de Castro hold 132 homes, from studios to four-bedroom flats, and cost about €15 million, funded by the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Plan. Welcome as they are, 132 homes barely register against the need: councils across Portugal have identified a need for around 133,000 affordable homes.

The protests come just days after the government presented its 2027 budget, and while parliament is still working on the new rental law, which one of the organisers, João Cruz, called “a betrayal” of most people. The coalition hasn’t yet announced its next step, so whether Saturday was a one-off or the start of something bigger, as in Spain, is still an open question.

Bottom line: thousands took their anger over pay and housing to the streets of Lisbon and Porto, and the organisers are openly looking to Spain.

⚡ QUICK HITS

Uganda’s Martin Naibei Musau and Ethiopia’s Meskerem Mamo Hayile won Saturday’s Lisbon Marathon. Musau won the men’s race in 2:08:07, a personal best by 35 seconds, finishing 26 seconds ahead of Kenya’s Gilbert Kipkurui Korir, with Korir’s compatriot Stephen Chebon Kipkech two seconds further back in third. The women’s race came down to four Ethiopian runners in the final kilometre, with Hayile winning on her marathon debut in 2:28:04, seven seconds clear. Last year’s winner, Abebech Afework, finished fifth in exactly the time that won her the race in 2025. Warm conditions ruled out course records, and the results are provisional. In yesterday’s half marathon, Ethiopia’s Adugna and Kenya’s Omare took the titles.

Cascais is considering tolls on the Marginal for drivers who don’t live there. The council took over responsibility for its stretch of the coast road, the main free alternative to the A5 motorway into Lisbon, and says tolls could pay for its upkeep. Mayor Nuno Piteira Lopes says Cascais residents would be exempt, but nothing has been approved, and there are no details yet on prices or how it would work. The council also wants a roundabout at the Parede exit and new speed and traffic cameras. The mayor says the answer for commuters is the train, pointing to new trains due on the Cascais line.

Portugal stands to get €35.1 billion from the EU’s next long-term budget, but wants €900 million more. Under the latest proposal from Ireland, which holds the EU presidency, Portugal’s allocation for 2028 to 2034 would be about €1.6 billion more than the European Commission first proposed, and 8.6% more than it gets now. The government wants at least €900 million more, ring-fenced for the Azores and Madeira, which a Portuguese diplomat called “a geopolitical asset of the EU”. EU leaders discuss the budget at this week’s European Council, with António Costa leading the negotiations.

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🍽️ SPOT OF THE DAY

KOUJI RAMEN & BAR (CAIS DO SODRÉ)

Kouji started in Macau about a decade ago and grew into a chain across China. Its Lisbon branch on Rua Dom Luís I, near the Time Out Market, is its first outside Asia. It works on two floors: a ramen restaurant downstairs, with the kitchen on view so you can watch the noodles go from hand to hand, and an Asian-inspired cocktail bar upstairs, plus a terrace.

There are eight ramens to choose from, with photos on the menu to help you pick, and the Lisbon kitchen adds a few local touches. The award-winning tonkotsu tsukemen, dipping noodles served with the broth on the side, comes with chashu made from Iberian black pork and an onsen egg, and its dashi is made with fresh cod bones from the Mercado da Ribeira next door. There are gyoza with paper-thin wrappers that crisp up in the pan. Expect to spend around €20 a head.

Worth knowing before you go: the restaurant is open from noon to 11pm, Monday to Saturday, and the kitchen doesn’t close in the afternoon. The bar upstairs opens from 5pm and stays open later at the end of the week.

→ Find them here ←

Insider tip: order the tsukemen for the Lisbon twist. The cod-bone dashi is the kitchen’s nod to the market next door.

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See you tomorrow morning.

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