While the mass protests in France last weekend dominate the news outside France as well as domestically, similar protests, notably without violence, took place in Portugal. There, tens of thousands of Portuguese people took to the streets in Lisbon alone to express their discontent with a doubling of housing prices since 2017 and the sharp rise in the cost of living. The CGTP, Portugal’s largest labor union, had organized the Lisbon rally as well as others in Coimbra and Porto. Students and others have joined the protests. Two hundred tents were pitched in Lisbon’s Rossi Square as well as Porto’s Dom Square, but were removed yesterday after standing for 10 days.

“Given the rising costs of living, housing, and fuel, a basic basket of groceries now comes at an exorbitant price,” a spokesperson for the CGTP in Coimbra told the media. Speaking to the Lusa news agency, Tiago Oliveira, the CGTP’s secretary-general, said the demonstrations were a reaction to the “sharp rise” in housing prices and the cost of living, warning against the increasing “deterioration of public services.” He sees the rallies as an opportunity for citizens to “fight against the government’s policies.”