Fernando Veludo / Lusa
Activists participate in the 20th LGBTI+Pride March, in Porto
Large hundreds of people occupied the downtown Lisbon for the right to housing. Thousands affirm LGBTI+ pride in a colorful port.
Long hundreds of people occupied this Saturday the streets of Baixa de Lisboa fighting for the right to housing, a demonstration that mobilized above all young people, alerting the government that It is “absolutely impossible” to live in Portugal.
“Portugal has the prices of the highest houses in Europe. The OECD [Organização para a Cooperação e Desenvolvimento Económico]Recently, Portugal considered the country with less access to home and, therefore, it is very important to be here on the street to show that these government options – PS, PSD and CDs – do not want to resolve the housing crisis, ”said Diogo Machado, 24, one of the many young faces present at Casa to Live demonstration in Lisbon.
Speaking to the Lusa agency, at the end of the demonstration, which departed from Largo de Camões and ended in the arch of Augusta Street, passing through the tourist zone of Baixa de Lisboa, this young man stressed that with this government of PSD/CDS-PP, “the houses rose in the first quarter of the year, more than many years.”
“Agent can’t stand the houses at this price“He reinforced.
Also Leonor Heitor, 21, who lives in Lisbon, but studies in the Algarve, asked: “How is it sustainable to live in a country where the value of rent is equal to the minimum wage?”
For this young woman, it is necessary to lower the prices of income and create measures to regulate local accommodation, but also intervene in the urbanistic part, with the rehabilitation Of the “vacant buildings” that should serve to solve the problem of “so many people without home or who can’t get a place to live where the price is affordable”.
During the demonstration, they echoed protest phrases such as “April demands home to live”, “home is to live, not to speculate” and “lower the lace, climb salaries”.
“We are fed up to choose: pay the income or eat“They complained the hundreds of protesters for the right to housing.
In the protest were also represented the neighborhoods of the Lisbon region, including the Mocho and the Slope, both in the municipality of Loures, with residents complaining that they are “in Risk of eviction ”of self -constructed housesalso designated of tents, that were built illegally.
Living in the neighborhood of Talude, where they are “around one hundred and such families“Marlise António took advantage of the demonstration in Lisbon to alert to the demolition of his tent, scheduled for Monday, showing a letter he received on Friday to warn of this decision by the Loures Chamber, and noticing that he is at risk of staying on the street without housing solution,
“Everyone’s desire is that we have a home to lease, but the salary is not enough. The salary is the minimum wage, it is nothing. A house is for 800 and such euros. If our salary is 800, we pay home?“, He exposed.
Among the protesters was also the former independent deputy Helena Roseta, author of the first housing bases, approved in 2019, who participated as a citizen in struggle for the right to housing, provided for in the Constitution.
“The right to housing is being denied to a huge percentage of young people And when an entire generation has no right to housing, we are compromising the future. THE Government You have to put this in your head, you are not solving the problem, you are not solving the problem. Of course did some things that are positive, but you need to go further“Architect Helena Roseta said in statements to Lusa.
The person responsible for the housing basis argued that the country cannot have houses to be sold and to be leased to the prices to which they are, as well as “without contract, no receipt, without papers.”
“Rights are never granted, they are conquered, and we are making a battle that is not only national, it is transnational. […] It is not possible to balance a Portuguese territorial limited offer with an unlimited transnational and multinational demand, ”said Helena Roseta, defending, for example, a new housing lease code.
At the end of the demonstration, next to the arc of Rua Augusta, André Escaval, one of the spokespersons of the Casa to Live platform and member of the Porta a door movement, said the “Great strength” in the mobilization of people “against one of the biggest national problems, which is the denial of the right to housing”, noting that, besides Lisbon, there were protests in others 11 cities From the country, and Sunday there will be in Porto.
“This is a struggle that will continue. These wide hundreds of people who today participated in this demonstration was a sign they gave to the government [de] what Shortly after the summer will be on the street again. And there can be no state budget to 2026 that does not have an unambiguous bet on housing, ”said André Escaval, noting that there are measures to take“ immediately ”such as lace regulation and the increase in the length of contracts.
Isabel Mendes Lopes (Livre), Paulo Raimundo (PCP) and Mariana Mortágua (Left Block) were at the demonstration; They accused the PSD/CDS government of aggravating the housing crisis and required urgent measures for the sector.
An unusual moment occurred when the PCP General Secretary-General made statements to journalists and was interrupted for one madam visibly exalted, who complained about being clear on August 31 last year.
“I should have received 200 euros of income support, but I only received 93 euros. I was stolen. I have chronic disease and I’m not working full time. My situation is the worst possible,” said the lady, who said she was 57 and now residing in Sesimbra. He then left a critique of the general communication: “Stop lowering the tail to capital and start listening to people.”
When you stopped talking, Paulo Raimundo He gave him a hug and a kiss. And made the following comment to journalists: “This are not stories, they are lives”.
LGBTI+ Pride March
Also this Saturday, thousands of people colored several arteries in downtown Porto in the 20th LGBTI+ Pride March from the city, in a public space occupation affirming its visibility and against the various oppressions experienced by the community.
The march began on Avenida dos Aliados and surrounded the center of Porto, filling practically half of Praça da República, all of Rua da Boavista to the turning of Cedofeita and all of the Cerlarda Street, until he reaches the wide love of perdition, in the Cordoaria.
Along the way, among colorful flags from the smallest to the giants, posters were visible with inscriptions such as “right to exist, duty to resist”, “the world needs our activism”, “Before fufa that fascist”“Love is of all colors”, “living is not just breathing”, “there is no cure for what is not a disease”, “Love does not need your permission” or “gisberta present”.
Songs such as “no less, no more, equal rights” were also sung, “our struggle is all day against machismo, fascism and homophobia”, “independent life is for everyone”, “The non -binary body is revolutionary” or “women with disabilities are also in resistance.”
“The importance is to be the twentieth. The importance is to watch a backwardness and an attack on what is our existence. So it is a duty to come to fight, especially for those who can. Unfortunately we are here also for those and those who cannot fight, ”said Lusa Filipe Gaspar today, from the organization before the start of the march.
Filipe Gaspar considered that “this imperative this year is stronger precisely to fight these threat that come from the guiding lines of the far right ”, being the objective of the march“ coming to the street occupying the public space ”.
“Hate speech has grown horrible. Just see the comments we see in the pages of the newspapers, which for us is a constant attack, ”he lamented, asking people to imagine What would be “every day to open a newspaper and see its identity or its way of existing attacked”.
Precisely about comments that encourage people LGBTI+ to not express themselves publicly, Filipe Gaspar considers that “this kind of criticism comes from a place of prejudice – that we all have, so this is not an insult to anyone ” – grounded in people’s erroneous sexualization.
“Only we are talking about affection”, as well as “Right to the familyThis is what we are claiming, and they also want us to stay at home, that we hide our families, the form of our affection, ”he continued.
Filipe Gaspar stated that if he criticized, he came to a march, he could “Deconstruct Many prejudices and stereotypes in relation to the people who frequent this place, this space and these existence. ”
“And even Download the guards and listen. We are people, we are human beings like anyone, we have feelings, and we do not want to be reduced to sexual, sexualized or fetishized beings. We don’t want to be in this place, we really want to be in everyone’s place: at work, in institutions, politics, ”he said.
The PAN spokeswoman, Inês de Sousa Realwas in this march: “ tolerance with intolerants has to have a limit. We cannot continue to have both movements or parties, which are ostensibly contrary to human rights and the fundamental principles of our constitution and which attack not only the LGBTiqa+community, but also women’s rights, and also attack the skin color, ”he defended in statements to Lusa.
