Thousands of people took to the streets in Portugal

“Everyone has the right to their own home” in the cities of Lisbon, Porto, Braga, Aveiro, Viseu and Coimbra. In the demonstrations carried out with the theme, they protested the increase in the price of housing in recent years due to the increase in the cost of living and the increase in cases of eviction from housing for not paying the mortgage or rent.

In the statement of the NGOs that organized the demonstration, it was stated that there are currently 730,000 empty houses in the country where 2 million people live at the poverty level and demanded that more quality social housing and cooperatives be built, the real estate market for controlled, and reduced bank interest and profit sharing.

“THE HOUSE IS A RIGHT”

Catarina Martins, leader of the communist-minded opposition United Left Party, and Paulo Raimundo, leader of the Portuguese Communist Party, also took part in the demonstrations, waving banners such as “We want a house to live in,” “Home is a right,” ” Many people are homeless, many houses are without people.”

Martins, in statements to the press, said: “The lowest salaries in Europe are in our country, but housing prices are the most expensive in the world. The measures taken by the government are insufficient. They cannot touch the banks or the real estate companies. Therefore, it does not respond to people’s problems. We want to end the tax benefits for real estate funds that earn more with vacant homes than with human homes. saying.

According to data from the Portuguese Institute of Statistics, house prices in the country have increased by 40 percent in the last 5 years. (AA)