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Riot police with dogs stormed protest camps in Lisbon and Porto early Sunday, charging demonstrators with batons, arresting 13 people and leaving dozens injured in the latest confrontation over Portugal's housing crisis.
Clashes erupted around 4:30 a.m. local time as dozens of officers moved in on camps in Lisbon’s Rossio Square and Porto’s Dom Joao I Square. Protesters shouted “smells like a dictatorship,” while police said some hurled bottles and paint at officers.
Police said in a statement that six people were arrested in Lisbon and seven in Porto for refusing orders to disperse. It said 13 police officers were injured in the process, with eight taken to the hospital.
In Porto, police said three plainclothes officers monitoring the protesters were assaulted after being spotted by a group.
An unspecified number of civilians were also injured during the operation, which was carried out "with rigour, balance and respect for citizens' rights", the statement read.
Activist group Acampada Lisboa said more than 30 protesters were injured, including 10 who required hospital treatment, and called a fresh rally in the capital on Sunday afternoon.
The camps had been set up late Saturday after peaceful marches through the two cities against soaring housing costs. Officers have repeatedly dismantled encampments that have sprung up across Lisbon and Porto in recent weeks.
Protesters want the minority center-right government to abandon plans to ease evictions and remove rent caps on new leases, saying the measures would raise costs and leave tenants more vulnerable.
They draw inspiration from a similar movement in neighboring Spain, where tents have stood in central Madrid and other cities for weeks.
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