“Repression can bring more people onto the streets”, says CIES-Iscte researcher

Original episode of the Hoje podcast, from the newspaper Público

Sociologist Tiago Carvalho, a researcher at CIES-Iscte, was the guest on the 16 October 2026 episode of Público’s podcast Hoje, devoted to the protests for the right to housing.

The conversation follows the police intervention at the housing protest camp in Porto, which left dozens injured. According to the researcher, the effect of such interventions is not linear. Repression can demobilise protesters, but under certain conditions it can also have the opposite effect, bringing more people onto the streets in solidarity with those protesting.

In the episode, Tiago Carvalho also explains how individual discontent turns into collective mobilisation, what role young people play in protest, and which factors make a movement gain strength, lose momentum or achieve concrete change.

Listen to the full episode on Público (in Portuguese).