Porto council rejects PS motion on police interventions at housing protest camp

The council vote

The Porto city council rejected a motion from the Socialist Party (PS) on Tuesday, 3 November, that asked the government and police to refrain from "violent interventions" at the housing protest camp in the city. The vote was held at a closed-door executive meeting. The PSD/CDS-PP/IL coalition led by mayor Pedro Duarte voted against, together with the sole Chega councillor, Miguel Corte-Real, and Jorge Sobrado, who was elected on the PS list and has since become independent after taking the culture portfolio and joining Duarte's team. Sobrado's switch gives the mayor's side a majority on the council.

What the motion asked for

The PS text described three police interventions at the camp in the days before the vote as "disproportionate and unjust to the city" and said the "repressive and violent action" had "caused new and serious problems of respect for human rights". It asked the council to call on the government and the police to step up dialogue and abstain from violent interventions. The motion also asked the council to express concern about an officer in plain clothes who displayed his weapon in the early hours of Sunday, 1 November, and requested that the Inspeção-Geral da Administração Interna (IGAI) and the Provedoria de Justiça fold that conduct into their assessment already under way. It further called for the council to express solidarity with a CMTV image reporter who was assaulted by police while working in the same early hours.

Police incidents and the earlier recommendation

Housing protests in the city began on 10 October, and the protest camp has been the setting for several police interventions in the days before the vote. The first of them took place at Praça D. João I, and the council had already asked the Provedoria de Justiça to assess its proportionality about two weeks before Tuesday's meeting. That earlier recommendation, put forward by the PS, was approved with the votes of the majority. The timeline below sets out the dated events in the dispute.

Duarte's position

At the margins of the meeting, Duarte defended the council's vote and accused the PS of throwing wood on the fire at a time when the council was open to dialogue with protesters. He said he regretted the episodes and condemned those responsible for them, adding:

“That is not the city of Porto. The city of Porto does not recognise itself in those behaviours, and I condemn whoever was responsible for those attitudes.”

Duarte argued that the PS had shifted position between two meetings without any findings from the review, saying:

“The PS has changed its position somewhat and now, without any conclusions, has submitted a proposal that clearly draws conclusions based on isolated images.”

He agreed with several of the motion's considerations but said it stirred up tempers at a time of dialogue.

Reactions from the opposition

Socialist councillor Manuel Pizarro lamented the rejection after the meeting, saying the events described in the motion should worry and distress decision-makers. Chega's Miguel Corte-Real also voted against, but for a different reason. He said the police must face consequences, adding:

“The police obviously have to face consequences and have to be assessed.”

He argued, however, that the councillors of the municipality should not be the ones to carry out that assessment.

Next steps

Duarte said the door to a meeting with the protesters remains open, either at the Paços do Concelho or in another building in the city. The camp's organisers turned down his invitation to meet on the late afternoon of Tuesday, 3 November. Duarte nonetheless said he would keep that option open after the vote. The reviews requested in the motion remain with the Provedoria de Justiça and the IGAI, where they were already under way.