Portugal Arrests 55 as Housing Protesters Retake Cleared Squares

Portuguese police dismantled two protest encampments against the housing crisis in Lisbon and Porto before dawn on Wednesday, arresting 55 people, only for thousands of demonstrators to stream back into the same squares within hours. The clearances mark the sharpest escalation yet in a monthlong wave of unrest over rents and evictions that has put the centre-right government's plan to overhaul tenancy law at the centre of national politics.

Officers moved in shortly before 6am against roughly 200 tents that had filled Lisbon's Rossio Square since Saturday and against a camp that protesters had maintained for about ten days in Porto's Praça Dom João I, according to Al Jazeera's report from the scene. Police had warned demonstrators in advance that the encampments were unlawful. The 55 people detained were released and are due in court in Lisbon later the same day. Organisers said more than 1,000 people returned to each square later in the day. In Porto, protesters complied with the order and took down their own tents; in Lisbon, a camp spokesperson, Carla Valadao, described the police operation as "very aggressive," while a police superintendent, Sergio Soares, said the action was calm, proportionate and involved no charges against demonstrators.

A rental law at the centre of the standoff

The camps grew out of protests that began spreading across Portugal in mid-October against a government bill that would make evictions easier and lift the cap on rent increases for new leases. The measure, approved by the Council of Ministers in July as part of a wider package the government has framed around "greater contractual freedom" and faster dispute resolution, according to the official communiqué from that cabinet meeting, would let landlords begin eviction proceedings after two months of missed rent instead of three, and would remove the existing 2 percent ceiling on rent increases between contracts. The same package created an emergency housing fund intended to provide direct, non-repayable support for people facing eviction because of financial hardship or domestic violence. The bill passed a first reading in parliament, and protesters are demanding that the government withdraw it entirely.

The grievance driving the protests is backed by official statistics. Portugal recorded the European Union's steepest annual rise in house prices in the second quarter of 2026, up 16.5 percent year on year, according to Eurostat's house price index, more than three times the EU-wide average increase of 4.7 percent over the same period. Only Bulgaria and Lithuania came close, and the gap has persisted for several quarters even as the rate of increase has eased slightly from the 17.8 percent recorded at the start of the year.

Those running figures explain the make-up of the crowds. Among those who camped in Rossio Square was Debora Miranda, 41, a communications consultant, who told Al Jazeera she had joined to represent "generations struggling with rising costs," saying "enough is enough." Jorge Paixao, a 19-year-old history student at the same encampment, called the situation "a societal crisis." Organisers and local media have described the camps as drawing a mix of students priced out of shared flats, young professionals unable to save a deposit, and older tenants on fixed incomes facing sharply higher rents when their leases come up for renewal.

An ombudsman's inquiry into an earlier, bloodier clearance

Wednesday's operation followed a more violent precedent six days earlier. Police moved against the original Porto camp in Praça Dom João I at around 3am on October 15, an operation that the housing movement said left 37 people injured, two of them with fractures, according to Euronews's account of that night. Protesters described the clearance as violent and disproportionate; police said a more forceful intervention had become necessary and confirmed one officer was also hurt.

That episode prompted Portugal's national ombudsman, the Provedora de Justiça, Luísa Neto, to open a formal inquiry. In a notice posted the following day, her office said it had asked the national directorate of the PSP police force, with urgency, for information and documents on the operation.

"Once furnished with those elements, the Ombudsman will analyse the compatibility between the police intervention in question and the fundamental right of assembly and demonstration," the Provedoria de Justiça said in its statement, noting that the right is protected under Article 45 of Portugal's constitution and a 1974 decree-law governing public assembly.

Porto's mayor, Pedro Duarte, has taken a harder line than the ombudsman, saying before the October 15 clearance that the city would be "absolutely uncompromising" toward any new encampment in the square. Opposition councillors from the Socialist Party in Porto have separately complained to the ombudsman's office about the force used, and the PSP has forwarded video of the protest to the public prosecutor's office. The injury toll and the question of whether the pre-dawn timing of the operation was itself disproportionate remain disputed between the movement and the police.

Protests likely to continue through the court dates and committee votes

The housing protests have not been confined to the two cities cleared this week. A nationwide day of demonstrations on October 17, called by the CGTP union federation, drew large crowds to Lisbon, Porto, Coimbra and Faro, part of a broader mood of discontent over living costs that has also produced smaller housing protests in neighbouring Spain in recent months. Tourism pressure and the arrival of remote-working "digital nomads" in Lisbon and Porto have added to resentment in city centres where property prices have risen fastest.

Two immediate hurdles will shape what happens next. The 55 people detained early Wednesday are due to appear before a Lisbon court the same day, where prosecutors will decide whether to pursue charges related to the encampment's removal. Separately, the government's rental bill now moves into the committee stage in parliament, where the governing Social Democrats have reached an understanding with the right-wing Chega party, which abstained rather than opposed the measure in its first vote, to negotiate changes to its text. The Socialist Party, Left Bloc, Communist Party and smaller left and regional parties voted against the bill outright and are expected to press amendments or further opposition in committee.

For now, both squares remain occupied. Protesters in Lisbon and Porto have given no indication of how long they intend to stay, and organisers have signalled that further demonstrations are likely if the government presses ahead with the bill's current provisions on evictions and rent caps.