Saturday another day of heightened concerns, with two rival protests
The scourge of violence affecting Lisbon since the killing of Odair Moniz by PSP police has reached the attention of international media, with a number of outlets predictably ‘warning tourists visiting Portugal’.
As tourism operators admit, the fact that violence on the streets has been largely confined to greater Lisbon doesn’t stop outsiders getting the wrong impression.
“Any upset to public order has an impact on tourism”, Hélder Martins, president of AHETA, the Algarve association of hoteliers and touristic resorts, tells Correio da Manhã. And due to the size of Portugal compared to other countries, “when something happens in Lisbon, or any other part of the country, tourist markets see it as Portugal as a whole” which “could cause a poor image and be a large problem for tourism”.
Martins was being asked for a reaction to stories in the UK media, like that of the Daily Express describing “Crisis in Portugal as riots spread with Lisbon looking like a war zone”. The Express particularly has been ‘hot’ on the subject of Lisbon’s riots, warning tourists about travelling to Portugal, as has Birmingham Live, says CM.
Across the Atlantic in the US, ABC news has also covered the situation – stressing that the violent response to Moniz’s death shown over the last few days “is uncommon in Portugal”.
But the ‘damage’ of this last week is now clear for all to see: type Lisbon into any search engine, and the recent wave of violence spanning five consecutive nights is sure to come up.
Equally worrying is the fact that since the government’s ‘reinforcement of police’ in all municipalities affected, disturbances have continued.
Last night, for example, 13 light vehicles and five motorbikes were set on fire; three buildings were damaged in what Lusa terms ‘disagreements’; seven rubbish bins and a sofa were set on fire in such a way to block public highways.
Two arrests were made, but the overall picture is not one of returning calm.
The incidents last night were restricted to Barreiro, Cascais, Lisbon, Loures and Vila Franca de Xira, “with the bulk of the incidents concentrated in a single incident in the parish of Benfica”, says Lusa.
And today, there are more tensions as two protests are scheduled by ‘rival factions’ at the same time (3pm): the first, a protest against police brutality and the killing of Odair Moniz; the second a ‘show of solidarity for the police force’.
The first protest is powered by civic group Vida Justa (sometimes referred to as an anti-racist group, other times ‘a political group’), essentially ‘left leaning’; the second by right wing CHEGA, already in very bad odour due to comments made by three of its hierarchy.
When Vida Justa announced its protest on Thursday, the plan was to march from Marquês de Pombal to parliament. This changed once CHEGA announced its protest “in defence of police” shortly afterwards, saying it too would march from Praça do Município to parliament.
Police have said they consider there is still “some risk to public safety” by dint of both protests starting at the same time.
The two demos will be policed by different branches of the Lisbon Metropolitan Command with the ‘permanent support’ of resources from the PSP’s Special Police Unit.
“The police will promote the constant visibility and mobility of the police resources deployed for this security operation in order to prevent and avoid situations where public order is altered,” said a statement by the PSP, recalling that it “will not tolerate acts of disorder and destruction carried out by criminal groups”, which “are part of a minority and do not represent the rest of the population”.
One saving grace for today’s protests is the weather: it is wet and cold in the capital, conditions which are not usually conducive to violent outbursts of destructive emotion.
