Lisbon · Porto · October 2026
What happened
Three nights on which riot police cleared the camps for the right to housing by force, told through the videos of people who were there. Most recent first. Times shown are when the video was posted, not when it was filmed.
Lisbon and Porto at the same time, at around 2 am, after the demonstrations of 24 October. The police speak of 31 arrests and 11 injured, 3 of them officers. Lisbon's hospitals alone treated at least 27 injured. That night the clocks went back one hour at 2 am: the times below are already winter time.
Lisbon Rossio and Praça da Figueira
25 arrested, according to the police. The night as told by the Observador newspaper, which was in Rossio, with the videos of each moment.
The biggest camp
A march for the right to housing goes from Marquês de Pombal to Rossio. By the end of the day there are around 130 tents and, according to the activists, some 300 people, with popular assemblies and a concert.
The deadline
The police say the demonstration ends at 00:30 and the tents must go, one way or another. The organisers object, citing the Constitution, and ask for the written record that the law itself requires. According to the lawyer giving them legal support, the police said that if the tents were removed there would be no intervention, and refused to write the record. The police close the exits to Restauradores and Largo de São Domingos; Rua do Carmo stays open.
The attempt at mediation
The police line up with batons and shields. MP Fabian Figueiredo talks to the commanders and offers to mediate between the police and the organisers. The police accept, but the attempt fails.
The warnings
The police give three minutes to take down the tents and warn that staying is the crime of disobedience. In an assembly, the majority decides to stay. At around 2 am comes the final warning: force may be used. The campers called the two hours of waiting "psychological terror".
The charge
The Special Police Unit advances with batons and shields, with dogs on site. Protesters shield themselves with doors and boards. People are injured; a young man bleeding from the head is treated by paramedics. By 2:10 am Rossio is empty.
Praça da Figueira
Protesters flee down Rua da Betesga to Praça da Figueira, where a makeshift first-aid post is set up; most of the injured go to São José Hospital. Clashes last more than half an hour, until the police advance again, towards Rua da Madalena and Martim Moniz.
Mouraria and Graça
Scattered, groups build barricades with rubbish bins in Mouraria and block Avenida Almirante Reis. The night ends in Graça.
The toll
At 8 am, the police count 25 arrested and 5 injured in Lisbon. The hospitals contradict them: São José and Santa Maria confirm they treated at least 27 injured, and that number leaves out everyone who did not go to hospital. Casa para Viver speaks of 60 injured in the two cities, some seriously. The city council cleans up Rossio.
Porto Praça D. João I
The wait
The police had said protesters could stay in the square, at night too, as long as they removed the tents. In the hours before, more police arrive, and dogs, and there is pushing around the square.
The charge
The Special Police Unit advances after the protesters refuse to take down the tents, and breaks the human chain formed in front of them.
The toll
Six arrested, released from the police station in the morning, and 54 tents removed. The police count 6 injured in Porto; the organisers, 37 lightly injured and 5 people receiving treatment. Protesters gather outside City Hall and say the protest goes on.
In the press
Three warnings in fifteen minutes and then force, at 6:08 am, when, according to the organisers, most people were asleep. That day, Interior Minister Luís Neves warned that the camps were over.
Lisbon Rossio
The police arrested 55 people for disobedience.
Observador made a minute-by-minute reconstruction, with the time of each warning: watch on YouTube (in Portuguese).
The first charge, at around 2:56 am, after, according to the organisers, the journalists had left.
Porto Praça D. João I
The organisers count 37 injured, two with fractures. The police speak of "resistance". The Public Prosecutor's Office opened an inquiry into this charge.
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