Behind Portugal’s enduring housing protest

By Manuel Fuentes

Lisbon, Oct 30 (EFE).- Housing protests in Portugal are drawing strength from digital networks that spread information and document police interventions, but also from personal connections, solidarity, and sustained activism that keep people mobilized beyond demonstrations.

Social media have helped amplify the movement and bring its demands to a wider audience.

Yet the role of online platforms, the extent to which the protests emerged spontaneously and their relationship with other forms of political participation remain subjects of debate among researchers Elísio Estanque and Guya Accornero, who spoke to EFE.

Both describe the demonstrations as peaceful, while offering different perspectives on how the movement has developed and what sustains it Estanque, a researcher at the Centre for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra, considers digital platforms “fundamental” to recent mobilizations in Portugal and elsewhere in Europe.

Accornero, a political science professor at the University Institute of Lisbon (Iscte) and researcher at its Centre for Research and Studies in Sociology, recognizes their importance in the initial stages of mobilization and as a means of documenting events.

However, she argues that face-to-face relationships are more important in sustaining protests over time.

For Estanque, a constant exchange of information and online debate precedes demonstrations.

Afterwards, the rapid circulation of images showing clashes and police interventions amplifies events and draws in both committed activists and people around them.

Accornero cautions that calls to protest based solely on digital networks tend to be short-lived, a pattern she says does not apply to Portugal’s housing mobilizations.

“Sustained mobilizations require organization and strategies,” she says.

Demonstrations are merely “the tip of the iceberg” of prolonged activist work that builds solidarity, formulates demands and creates collective identities.

Spontaneity and organization

Estanque describes the beginning of the current wave of protests as “largely spontaneous,” although he acknowledges the influence of mobilizations already underway in other European countries.

Accornero challenges what she calls the “myth of spontaneity,” arguing that some form of organization is always present, even when informal, and that sustaining collective action requires knowledge and experience.

The Coimbra sociologist says some young people join the protests both because they identify with the housing problem and because they are drawn to an aesthetic of irreverence and dissent promoted by organized groups.

He links the prominent role of young people to the weakness of trade unions among precarious workers.

The Iscte professor, meanwhile, stresses that different forms of political participation complement one another.

People interested in public affairs can engage through elections, political parties, trade unions, associations and demonstrations.

Social movements also provide opportunities for political empowerment, particularly for marginalized people and those facing severe precariousness.

Peaceful protests and evictions

Estanque describes the demonstrations as “predominantly peaceful,” linking this to the diversity of people affected by the housing crisis, including members of the middle class. Violent incidents, he argues, are the exception.

Accornero says the protests have been “extremely peaceful” and that demonstrators have not provoked confrontations.

She questions why camping in the streets is treated as illegal when many people are forced to live there because they lack housing, a situation for which she holds the institutions responsible.

“Furthermore, it is illegal not to respect a constitutional right,” she says.

Estanque praises the measured language used by protest spokespeople but warns that attempts to discredit opponents and heightened emotions can encourage violent behavior.

Accornero says she is unaware of any calls for violence and points to the peaceful character of housing demonstrations in recent years.

Estanque criticizes what he considers a disproportionate police response, arguing that the Government’s silence and some of its statements have fuelled public indignation.

The unrest, he says, reflects unfulfilled promises and accumulated frustration.

Accornero, for her part, considers the eviction of people and demolition of settlements without offering families alternative accommodation to be forms of violence that run counter to the constitutional right to housing.

Both researchers also highlight the work of activists who accompany people facing eviction, provide legal and material assistance, and raise public awareness.

Many of these activists do not themselves experience housing difficulties, Accornero notes, but dedicate their time and take risks to defend the right to housing.

For her, this day-to-day commitment sustains the movement beyond demonstrations and online calls.

“Solidarity, something that seems forgotten, fortunately exists in these groups,” she says. EFE

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