siiky
2026/11/09
2026/11/09
en
Here in Portugal protests have finally broken out for the "housing crisis" that we're going through. The national monthly minimum wage (920€) is not enough to live by in most of the country, not only in Lisbon and Porto. The largest hit to monthly finances is rent. I'm *lucky* to be paying *only* 715€ (77.7% the minimum wage), and that I don't live alone, because otherwise I couldn't even hope to save up some money. The average salary nationwide is 1335€. Statistics suggest that most of the population does earn more than minimum wage (median is a whopping 980€ nationwide); on the other hand, it also means most of the population earns less than 980€. To aggravate things, the current government (right-leaning) is proposing to change the renting laws such that, for example, there's no limit to how much rent can be increased each year (currently 2%), landlords may require up to 3 (currently 2) rents in advance (in practice it's 3 to 4 because of an "escrow" used to cover damage caused by the tenants), and may kick a tenant out after 2 (currently 3) late rents.
Given this context, it shouldn't be surprising that people, especially young people, are protesting. Since the beginning, the protests were peaceful; people gathered daily in a public square in Porto and Lisbon, held popular assemblies, and a significant number of them camped through the nights. Yet, almost daily too, police charged, dispersed, and chased everyone out forcefully, some times with rubber bullets and dogs. Some tens of protestors have been arrested and brought to court. Hundreds of propestors were hurt these past few weeks, including older people out there supporting their sons and daughters, and other people just passing by, not participating in the protests at all. In comparison, a handful of police officers were hurt (totally unacceptable! see next).
The mayors of Porto (Pedro Duarte) and Lisbon (Carlos Moedas) started this repression. The prime minister (Luís Montenegro) initially commented the protests have no good reason to exist, there's no actual problem. The minister of internal affairs (Luís Neves, previous national head of the Polícia Judiciária, and several related titles before then) commented that the police have been using force (though adequate) because the protests were violent, that they possessed weapons and pyrotechnic devices, that they throw objects at the police such as paint (his literal words), that they started protecting themselves against riot police, and asked the protesters to not let "left wing extremists infiltrate the movements." A previous president of the republic (Cavaco Silva) said in an internal meeting that the state must not let protesters get away with anything, and that the police should be used to show who's boss. The president of the institute of housing and urban rehabilitation (Benjamim Pereira) commented that young people are not prepared to make sacrifices like previous generations have, such as by emigrating.
This is most infuriating. The housing crisis is affecting several other countries in Europe; at the same time, right wing parties throughout Europe pump out propaganda about immigrants taking jobs, homes, and just generally being unpleasant; and these same fuckers say the problem with young people is that they're not willing to emigrate, to go to another country affected by these same problems, to take shit for being immigrants, and just suck it up. There's a problem, but instead of working to solve it, we should go away -- who do these fuckers expect will stay?
In a different bubble, all the Portuguese welldoers of the world (by all appearances Portugueses de Bem the whole lot of them) congregate around Reddit's r/portugueses (the "uncensored" r/portugal), to extoll their hard labor and feats of ingenuity, their three bachelor degrees, their awesome life abroad, their ability to save up money, their frugality, etc, etc, etc. All of that, so that after the 50 years of age they can buy a house back in Portugal -- essentially: work hard for 50 years and/or be lucky to get a "good job", and maybe you'll get a decent life. HOW DARE others, then, -- especially the youngsters! -- wish for a decent life, one where they can rent or buy a house and still have a life earning minimum wage (its whole raison d'etre).
Fuck your christian sacrificial values!
While these welldoers, who've worked good jobs for decades abroad, now have money to spend, what they spend it on *necessarily* depends on people doing "lesser" jobs -- cashiers, shop assistants, handymen, mechanics, trash people, mail postmen and messengers, cooks, cleaners, call centers, barbers and hairdressers, etc -- the jobs most likely to pay minimum wage. They are so blind right now, they don't even realize it's not only the "lesser" jobs not providing enough to live, it's other essential jobs too, recognized for their importance to a functioning society, but not more than in appearance -- certainly not in living conditions here in Portugal -- doctors, nurses, firefighters, teachers and professors, farmers, etc.
Let's everyone race to get all the "good jobs" as fast as possible. Couldn't get a "good job"? Tough luck, eat shit, it's a zero sum game. This mentality is not sustainable; I might go as far to say that it's *antisocial*! It's antisocial survival: the survival of the individual at the cost of the survival of a society.