Sporting CP announced on Sunday that Rui Borges is no longer the club's head coach. The Lisbon club's board met with the first-team coach in the afternoon, and in a statement said conversations had begun to terminate the Portuguese coach's contract. Borges leaves after two years at Alvalade, having won a Portuguese league title and a Portuguese Cup. The next match would have been his 100th in charge. Sporting said Tiago Fernandes, the B-team coach, is taking over the first team and will manage the side in its next Champions League match against Shakhtar Donetsk in London. Paulo Fonseca, currently the coach of Lyon, has been the most frequently mentioned possible replacement.
In Lisbon, tensions returned to Rossio on Sunday after police fined at least two drivers who were honking in solidarity with protesters. The drivers were fined for honking in those circumstances, but protesters viewed the action as arbitrary because other cars had honked during the afternoon without apparent police attention. The crowd in the centre of the square ran toward the edge near the Teatro Nacional Dona Maria II, where cars stopped and two PSP intervention vans also arrived. Protesters challenged the police action in the crowd and the presence of the vans, with tempers rising as some approached the vehicles and insulted officers. The officers returned inside the vans. When the first van began to leave, some protesters stood in front of it and some kicked it; organizers of the camp and other protesters moved them away and called for calm. The situation was calmer later, though two firecrackers were heard near the theatre.
In Porto, more than 2,000 people remained in Praça Dom João I and decided in a popular assembly to continue their camp overnight. Tents were again erected in the square, and the movement said PSP would not intervene in the early hours. The protesters also decided to refuse an invitation from the Porto mayor to meet on Tuesday at the council. The city authority had said Pedro Duarte was available to discuss, among other issues, reconciling the right to demonstrate with the availability of urban spaces and the possibility of occasional camps.
One of the Porto camp's spokespersons, Henrique Blanc, said the Casa Civil of the Presidency contacted him at 19:30 to say President António José Seguro was willing to meet the organization to discuss its proposals and the latest events related to the camp. Blanc said the proposal was received favourably but would still be discussed democratically by everyone. The Secretary of State for Housing was also reported as available to meet the camp organizations.
Reacting to the early-morning police charges, Chega leader André Ventura said such situations only happen because of the prime minister's absence. He argued that demonstrations should not be a public-order issue and blamed Prime Minister Luís Montenegro and the interior minister, saying the government does not know how to react. Ventura also said police were suffering from the dissatisfaction generated by the rising cost of living and announced an emergency package for housing, which he described as immediate measures rather than a basic housing and rental law. Livre called for the interior minister's resignation and said it would support an urgent debate requested by the PCP. Its co-spokesperson, Isabel Mendes Lopes, described the police charges as disproportionate and unjustified and said the Interior Ministry had no conditions to continue. Livre said it would raise the case with the Council of Europe Human Rights Commissioner and international organizations, alleging serious violations of rights protected by the European Convention on Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The party condemned police action against what it considers peaceful protests for the right to housing and called new police interventions deeply worrying.
Sources: Observador.