The Lisbon Administrative Court ruled on Sunday, 1 November, that the 12.30am cut-off for demonstrations is not “absolute and automatic”, allowing a protester to stay overnight in Rossio, in Lisbon, with a tent.
According to the ruling, seen by journalists on Monday, the ongoing protests may continue lawfully until 24 November 2026, the date set for the final vote on the 2027 State Budget. That includes the hours between 12.30am and 6.30am, and it will have to be coordinated with the Christmas Market planned for Praça D. Pedro IV, commonly known as Rossio Square.
The decision comes in the context of extremely concerning police violence against peaceful protesters in Lisbon and Porto, which escalated over the weekend of 31 October and 1 November. Thousands of people had taken to the streets to protest against soaring rents, unaffordable property prices, and government housing policies they say will further undermine tenants' rights.
Following the demonstrations, protesters established temporary encampments in Lisbon's Rossio Square and Porto's Praça D. João I. In the early hours of Sunday morning however, police moved to dismantle the camps, reportedly using batons, riot shields, and police dogs against demonstrators who resisted their removal. Around 100 people were reportedly injured across the two cities, while 13 protesters were arrested. The police also reported minor injuries among their own officers.
Particular concern followed an incident in Porto in which an undercover police officer reportedly drew his firearm during a confrontation with protesters.
The court’s decision over the weekend follows an application for the protection of rights, freedoms, and guarantees brought by a prominent protester, Renata Cambra, against the Ministry of Internal Administration and Lisbon City Council. The court did not assess “the legality of a collective occupation” of Rossio, nor whether there is a general right to put up “tents in public spaces by an indeterminate number of participants”.
“Should the coexistence of the demonstration and the Christmas Market prove materially unfeasible [...], an alternative location, close or adjacent, must be made available [to the protester], capable of preserving the visibility, communicative effectiveness and symbolic meaning of the protest,” the court ordered.
The protester, for her part, must make no noise between midnight and 6.30am, and must not use bonfires or pyrotechnics. She must also not obstruct movement and access to Rossio, or its cleanliness.
The court also ordered the PSP (Public Security Police) and Lisbon’s Municipal Police to refrain from “measures to disperse, halt or remove” the citizen’s exercise of her right to demonstrate, “if it is being exercised as decreed”.
The PSP has cited an August 1974 decree-law in recent days, which sets 12.30am as the time limit for gatherings, using this as justification to forcibly disperse the housing-rights camps of the past three weeks in Praça D. João I in Porto, and in Lisbon’s Rossio.
While declining to examine the legality of police action, the court points out that the right to demonstrate is protected by the 1976 Constitution. It argues that “a blanket ban applying to any and every demonstration after 12.30am”, without regard to its characteristics, “hardly meets the requirements of the principle of proportionality”.
“It is easy to imagine situations in which a peaceful demonstration after 12.30am causes no significant disruption to public order, safety or the rights of third parties, notably when held in a wide space, with few participants, without sound equipment or without significantly obstructing the movement of people and vehicles,” the judge stresses.
She also recalls that squares are not merely places of passage but, since Classical Antiquity, “spaces for debate, participation and political expression”.
“Consequently, any restriction on the use of these spaces for demonstration purposes demands particularly rigorous justification, on pain of affecting not only collective freedom of expression but also one of the most traditional and important forms of democratic participation,” the court argues.
Citing European Court of Human Rights case law, the court adds that protest camps “may fall within the scope of protection of freedom of assembly and demonstration”, and do not amount to a “camp subject to administrative licensing”.
“The tent is an instrumental or symbolic element of the protest itself, directly related to the message the demonstrators wish to convey about housing insecurity or lack of access to housing. Its presence is part of the exercise of the freedom to demonstrate protected by Article 45 of the Constitution,” the judge concludes.
Source:JN
Photo credit: Jose Sena Goulão / LUSA
