“Lower rents, increase salaries”: thousands of Portuguese demonstrate against the housing crisis

Thousands of people marched in the streets of Lisbon and around thirty other cities in Portugal on Saturday to protest against the housing crisis, which has become a major subject of public debate for several weeks. “Lower rents, increase salaries,” protesters shouted in the Portuguese capital.

A graduate in communications but only employed part-time, David Peters still lives with his parents, but would like to become independent at 23. “Housing is the main obstacle (...), that’s why we are demonstrating today,” he told AFP.

“We are the most unequal country in Europe”

“We just want a place to study, but we can't find accommodation in good condition and what's more, they impose prices on us that no one can afford,” says Matilde Cunha, 20, who studies arts in Coimbra (center). “With the little we earn and the level of rents, we are the most unequal country in Europe,” says Maite Chaves, a 40-year-old Uruguayan who has lived in Lisbon for 17 years.

Portugal is the country in the European Union where housing prices increased the most in relation to household income between 2015 and 2025, the indicator measuring this development having jumped by 60.8% over this period, far ahead of the Netherlands, which comes in second place with an increase of 34.3%, according to data published this week by the statistical office Eurostat.

Downtown camps

Saturday's mobilization was launched following the adoption by the Portuguese Parliament of a reform project aimed in particular at simplifying and accelerating the evictions of tenants. The text proposed by the right-wing government, which does not have an absolute majority in the Assembly, was voted on at first reading at the end of September thanks to the abstention of the far right, even though Spain was shaken by demonstrations after the expulsion from her home of an octogenarian from Madrid, Maricarmen, who subsequently died.

Since then, like the camps which then emerged in several Spanish cities, activists for the right to housing in Portugal have launched a movement which attempted to occupy emblematic squares in Lisbon and Porto, in the north of the country. These protesters encountered the intransigence of the authorities, and their camps were forcibly evacuated by the police on several occasions.

Call for dialogue

The President of the Republic, Antonio José Seguro, called for dialogue between the government and the opposition, but Prime Minister Luis Montenegro's meetings with the far right, the second political force in Parliament, and the socialists did not lead to any concrete progress.

The head of state, from the Socialist Party, "is attentive to the housing crisis and has endeavored to listen to and mobilize all the actors with a view to its resolution", indicated the presidency on Friday after Mr. Seguro had received representatives of collectives for the right to housing.