Tens of thousands of people marched through central Lisbon on Saturday to protest against soaring living costs and a deepening housing crisis in Portugal, adding pressure on the centre-right government, Reuters reports. Portugal’s biggest union, the CGTP, called the rally and said “many tens of thousands” packed one of the capital’s main avenues, according to the Yahoo copy of the Reuters report, which says police gave no crowd estimate; The Straits Times’ reprint of the same Reuters story renders the union’s phrase as “tens of thousands.” Al Jazeera, drawing on AFP, AP and Reuters, says an estimated tens of thousands of protesters marched against the cost-of-living crisis, low wages and an inability to access housing in major cities. This desk found no police count of the march, so the union’s description stays the only figure on hand.

Protesters say low wages fail to keep pace with housing costs and the rising cost of living, leaving many people struggling to make ends meet, Reuters reports. Portugal’s inflation hit 3.6% in September, driven by rising food and fuel prices, with fuel up 15% year-on-year after rising tensions in the Middle East, according to Reuters. House prices have more than doubled since 2017, Reuters and Al Jazeera report; Reuters says rents for new leases have nearly doubled, “fuelling one of Europe's worst housing affordability crises,” while Al Jazeera says those rents have increased nearly as much as prices. Reuters adds that the squeeze hits hardest in major cities.

Carolina Cruz, 26, a PhD student and biology researcher who earns about €1,300 ($1,460) a month on a scholarship, faces losing her home as her rental contract nears expiry, Reuters reports. She and her partner pay €716 a month for an apartment in the Lisbon area, and renewal could push the rent above €1,200, according to Reuters. “I'm the first person in my family to enter a doctoral programme, and even with all the studying I've done, I still can't make it... Right now, housing in Lisbon is the problem,” Cruz told Reuters. Pedro Penilo, 62, a teacher, described Portugal’s leaders as “out of touch with reality,” Reuters reports, quoting him: “Life is incredibly expensive… it's going up brutally.” He added, “I'm very worried,” as he waits to see how his mortgage changes when it gets adjusted in the coming months.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Carlos Abreu Amorim said on Friday the “government will not yield to shouts from the street,” Reuters and Al Jazeera report, and Reuters says he added that concrete measures to address the concerns had already started rolling out. RTP, Portugal’s public broadcaster, reports that the housing minister voiced great concern and acknowledged that people who protest over housing feel pain (desk translation). RTP also reports that left-wing party leaders played down Prime Minister Luís Montenegro’s remarks about the protests and said the government’s lack of answers drives people into the streets, and that Communist Party (PCP) secretary-general Paulo Raimundo described a new housing law as tailored to real-estate investment funds (desk translation). None of the outlets this desk read carried a direct response from Montenegro’s office to Saturday’s march.

The march ended in Rossio square, and a separate housing camp began there at about 5:00 PM local time (9:00 AM PT), shortly after the union protest finished, Diário de Notícias reports (desk translation). DN says participants rattled their house keys in the air as tents went up, and that a popular assembly approved six demands: reversing the rental law, ending demolitions and evictions without alternative housing, curbing home purchases by real-estate funds, expanding public housing, recovering vacant buildings for housing through public initiative, and capping rents. At least 2,500 people remained in the square in the early evening, DN reports, citing figures from the Lusa news agency.

Near midnight, protesters formed a human chain around dozens of tents as the legal end time for the demonstration approached, 12:30 AM Sunday local time (4:30 PM PT Saturday) under a decree-law from August 1974, DN reports (desk translation). Citing CNN Portugal, DN says the camp’s organisers warned participants that anyone staying after 12:30 AM would do so at their own risk. DN reports a heavy police presence around the square but no incidents between protesters and police up to about 1:00 AM; it says the only incident involved a rubbish bin set on fire in Porto, which organisers there blamed on people from outside the movement.

SIC Notícias, in a report carried by Sapo on Sunday morning, says hundreds of people spent the night in Rossio, formed a human chain around the tents at about 1:00 AM to keep them from removal, and sang protest songs and chants aimed at Montenegro through the night (desk translation). SIC says Socialist Party lawmaker Eva Cruzeiro highlighted the peaceful atmosphere and good organisation, and that the Casa para Viver housing movement planned a popular housing assembly in Lisbon’s Largo de São Domingos on Sunday. RTP’s live page, by contrast, says thousands of protesters spent the night in Rossio and in Porto’s Praça D. João I. In Porto, SIC says about 300 protesters stayed with their tents and that police left the square at about 2:00 AM.

Saturday’s march followed days of growing unrest, including a tent camp set up by housing activists in Porto that police cleared in a pre-dawn operation on Monday, Reuters reports. Reuters says the march coincided with protests in France against rising costs and declining public services, smaller protests in Belgium, and mass protests in Albania, where protesters demand the prime minister’s resignation. Al Jazeera describes hundreds of thousands of Europeans taking to the streets on Saturday in separate, uncoordinated demonstrations in Belgium, France, Italy and Portugal.