The streets of downtown Porto will today be the scene of two demonstrations, one against immigration organized by the far right, and the other anti-fascist called by the Habitação Hoje association, which will start an hour and a half apart.
The demonstration “Against Fascism, More and Better Housing”, organized by the association Habitação Hoje, is the first to take over the city’s streets.
With a meeting point in Praça dos Poveiros, the demonstration will begin at 3:30 p.m. The route of the march is unknown at this time.
500 metres away from Praça dos Poveiros, and an hour and a half later, the “Less Immigration, More Housing” demonstration, organized by the 1143 group, begins at Praça D. João I.
Initially scheduled for 6pm, the sit-in was brought forward to 5pm, “after telephone contacts with the PSP and by mutual agreement”, the group revealed in a post on the social network X (formerly Twitter).
The route of the demonstration has also been changed: instead of ending at Praça D. João I, it will go down Rua Sá da Bandeira, up Avenida dos Aliados and end next to Porto City Hall.
The two demonstrations received the positive opinion of the Metropolitan Command of the PSP in Porto, which will monitor both routes.
For “safety reasons”, Metro do Porto has decided to close the Aliados station between 2:30 and 7:00 pm.
On social media, both the 1143 group and the Habitação Hoje association called for people to take part in their respective demonstrations.
On the social network X, the 1143 group, whose spokesperson is far-right activist Mário Machado, called on “all patriots to be present” in Porto to show “opposition to the invasion of immigrants, which is the main reason for the brutal rise in housing prices”.
“The April Fascists want to ban patriots from demonstrating in Porto,” reads another of the group’s posts.
On Facebook, the association Habitação Hoje called for “the working class, Portuguese and immigrants, to unite against fascism, hatred and disinformation”.
In an attempt to prevent the demonstration called by the far-right from taking place, several organizations involved in the “demonstration against fascism” launched an open letter addressed to the President of the Republic, the mayor of Porto, the commander of the Porto PSP and other justice officials.
Consulted by Lusa, the letter, similar to the one published in January following the demonstration “against the Islamization of Europe” in Lisbon’s Martim Moniz, calls for “a halt to this demonstration, which is an incitement to hatred and violence and not a mere exercise of freedom of expression”.
