A housing protest that has occupied the heart of Porto for several nights was forced to stand down in the early hours of Friday, 16 October, with organisers pointing the finger at far-right infiltrators.
Speaking to journalists, a spokesman for the protesters, Pedro Manuel said the decision to stand down was made due to the “infiltration” of people foreign to the housing action group who, he added, meant to cause trouble by threatening members of the encampment with physical harm. To public broadcaster RTP, he went further, saying the order followed the identification of “far-right protesters” in the crowd, one of whom in particular was said to be “stirring up trouble” in Praça D. João I.
By his account there were 11 of them, “in the middle of the crowd” and “carrying knives”. He stressed that police had been alerted but chose not to step in. The order given to protesters on Friday, he told RTP, “has nothing to do with resistance, with the movement or with the police”.
The demands behind the Acampada do Porto movement include scrapping the rental law, ending evictions where people have nowhere else to live, putting the brakes on property funds buying up housing, capping rents, and building more public housing, amongst other things.
Moreover, in Lisbon, the installation of a new “housing camp” has been announced for Saturday, 17 October, in Rossio Square from 5pm local time, following “the example of the housing camp in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol” and “all those that followed”, with the aim of “demanding the right to housing for everyone”. Another mobilisation is also planned in Porto the same day.
Pedro Manuel told journalists from the Lusa news agency that organisers are weighing up whether to restart the camp. On Thursday night, he had told the SIC news station that a popular assembly would consider choosing a new spot in the city for future gatherings, after the earlier ones in Praça D. João I drew several hundred people, and brutal confrontations with police.
Recent events have been marked by several flashpoints. Just days ago, the housing movement claimed more than 30 protesters were injured in the early hours of Thursday, 15 October, following clashes between protesters and officers of the Polícia de Segurança Pública (PSP).
A source at the PSP’s Porto Metropolitan Command confirmed that there had been a need for “a more robust intervention” on the square, citing “resistance to police action” by some participants. However, the movement behind the “Acampada do Porto pela Habitação” (Porto Encampment for Habitation) called the police response “disproportionate and unjustified”.
The disorder prompted outcry amongst the public, with a petition having gathered more than 3,800 signatures at the time of writing. It calls for “political accountability for Pedro Duarte”, the mayor of Porto, and “for the defence of the right to demonstrate in Porto”. Its backers express a “deep indignation” at the events in Praça D. João I in the early hours of 15 October 2026, arguing that responsibility and the specific circumstances of the police operation “must be duly established”.
The petition notes that this came after the mayor said he would be “absolutely ruthless” with any new attempt to pitch tents on the square. “These statements, followed by the events of that night, raise legitimate questions about the political approach adopted by the council towards this protest,” its promoters said.
Meanwhile, the Jornal de Notícias newspaper has reported that the Inspectorate-General of Internal Administration (IGAI), the watchdog that oversees the police, has opened an administrative process to “establish the circumstances” of the police operation in the early hours of Thursday, and to “assess the procedures adopted”.
Source: JN / SIC / RTP
Photo credit: Pedro Granadeiro / LUSA
