Tens of Thousands March in Lisbon Over Housing and Living Costs
LISBON — Tens of thousands of people marched through central Lisbon on Saturday, October 17, to protest against soaring living costs and a deepening housing crisis in Portugal, increasing pressure on the centre-right government. Portugal's biggest union, CGTP, which called the rally, said "many tens of thousands" packed one of the capital's main avenues. Police gave no crowd estimate.
Protesters say low wages are failing to keep pace with housing costs and the rising cost of living, leaving many people struggling to make ends meet in the European Union and NATO member state. The demonstration followed days of growing unrest, including a tent camp set up by housing activists in the northern city of Porto that police cleared in a pre-dawn operation on Monday.
Portugal's inflation hit 3.6 percent in September, driven by rising food and fuel prices, the latter up 15 percent year-on-year following an increase in tensions in the Middle East. House prices have more than doubled since 2017, while rents for new leases have nearly doubled, fuelling one of Europe's worst housing affordability crises. The squeeze is most acute in major cities. (GSM, based on Reuters reporting)
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 里斯本自由大道。Avenida da Liberdade, Lisbon. Photo by Jules Verne Times Two, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
