Theme: Portugal

Protests against the cost of living and rent prices began with the occupation of a square in the city of Porto three weeks ago, where demonstrators set up tents, and were repeated at Rossio Square in Lisbon. This weekend, Lisbon’s administrative court authorized the occupation of Rossio to remain until November 24. Housing costs in Portugal rose 41.5 percent from 2020 to 2025, the largest increase in the whole European Union, whose average rise was 3.2 percent in the period, according to the Pordata portal.

Police clashed with protesters in Portugal after thousands demanded that the government scrap a proposed law that they say would deepen the country's housing crisis, Al Jazeera reported.

Dozens of officers, some accompanied by police dogs, moved into Rossio Square at about 4:30 a.m. GMT on Sunday to disperse a housing encampment, a day after thousands marched in Lisbon demanding that the government withdraw a rental bill, according to Al Jazeera. Protesters had erected more than 50 tents following Saturday’s march in the capital. The intervention followed operations in the same squares the previous Sunday, when police arrested 25 people in Lisbon and six in Porto.

Thousands of people rallied in Lisbon, Porto and other Portuguese cities on Tuesday evening, Deutsche Welle reported. Demonstrators vow to continue their campaign for affordable housing after police cleared tent camps and arrested at least 55 people.

Hours after police cleared their camps in Lisbon and Porto and arrested 55 people, thousands of protesters returned to two central squares to demonstrate against an intensifying housing crisis, according to Al Jazeera. Activists have demanded that the centre-right government withdraw a bill that makes evictions easier and ends rent caps on new leases, which passed a first parliamentary reading.

The United States (US) Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, called Amnesty International a fraud when rejecting criticism over the war with Iran, said the group should focus on the Iranian regime, which he said murdered in cold blood tens of thousands of people in the streets, and said the US keeps a regulated relationship with Portugal and Organization of the North Atlantic Treaty (NATO) allies, following the protocols every single time, according to The Jerusalem Post.

Portugal’s public prosecutor’s office opened an investigation into whether the government acted within the law when it authorised the use of the Lajes Base in the Azores by the United States during the conflict with Iran, according to Reuters, in a text republished by G1. Foreign Minister Paulo Rangel said, on the other hand, that Portugal was not involved in the conflict and that the use of the base respected international law.