Police clear housing camps as protesters gather for justice vigil
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Housing protesters have returned to the squares of Lisbon and Porto after police dismantled their encampments and detained 55 people. A vigil is scheduled at the Justice Campus to support those held, while lawyers question the legality of the decree used to justify the clearance. The demonstrators promised to return at 7:00; it appears they have.
The government is attempting to frame the unrest as a fringe movement, suggesting the public has no appetite for street disorder and blaming the opposition for the tension. It is a difficult narrative to maintain while reports show the middle-class elderly are being forced to sell their homes to afford private nursing care, which now exceeds 1700 euros a month.
The state's administrative backlog has reached the nationality office, which is sitting on 690,000 pending requests. Elsewhere, the country's wealthiest citizens have doubled their assets in property and shares, and over 8,000 electric scooters have been removed from the streets after 267 accidents required hospital visits.