Thousands of people took to the streets in Portugal on Saturday, calling for action on rising living costs and housing prices that many say have pushed ordinary households to the edge.
Demonstrations were held in Lisbon and Porto, with protests also planned in Aveiro, Braga and Funchal. Organised by the platform “You Can’t Live Like This Anymore,” the rallies drew attention to wages that protesters say no longer cover basic expenses, reported by Euro News.
Placards captured the strain in blunt, personal terms: “This salary isn’t enough to live on” and “I want to move out of my parents’ house before I’m 50.” In Lisbon, demonstrator Teresa Fonseca told the Lusa news agency she had joined after seeing the protest advertised on Instagram.
“Enough is enough,” she said. “We need to leave our homes and take to the streets to make our voices heard, just as the Spanish did.”
The organisers said people had spent years being squeezed by rising house prices and the cost of living. In a message promoting the demonstrations, they described workers struggling to stretch their wages through the month, pay for fuel and everyday essentials, and keep their homes.
The protests echoed recent demonstrations in Spain, where anger over housing costs grew after 87 year old Maricarmen Abascal was evicted from her home. Her case became a rallying point for a wider movement demanding action on the country’s housing crisis.
In Porto, where about 1,500 people reportedly gathered, one group held a sign reading: “Let’s do it like they do in Spain.”
The issue has also raised pressure on Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. His government proposed emergency housing measures, but parliament rejected them. Sánchez then called a snap election for November 29, turning housing into a central political issue.
For protesters in Portugal, the message was immediate and close to home: a job should be enough to pay for a roof, fuel and the basics of daily life.
