Lisbon, March 9, 2026 (Lusa) - Thousands of people marched today from Avenida da Liberdade to the riverside area of Lisbon on Sunday, International Women's Day, calling for greater equality and concrete measures to bridge the gap between men and women.
"This is the day we mark women's rights and honour all the people, all the women who fought so hard to get us where we are today, which is very different from where we used to be, and who continue to fight every day to ensure that we have equal rights, because a society with equal rights is a society where people are freer, where they have the ability to fulfil what they want for their lives, and here we are talking about both men and women," said Isabel Mendes Lopes, from Livre, speaking to journalists during the march.
"We all benefit from a society with equal rights, but there is still much to be done. We continue to have a society with various sexist tendencies, which continue to disproportionately harm women. This is evident when looking at the figures for domestic violence," she added.
Along the same lines, the leader of the Pessoas Animais Natureza party (PAN) pointed out that "in Portugal, last year alone, of the 25 people who died in the context of domestic violence, 22 were women, and the others were children."
Inês de Sousa Real considered that there is still a "long way to go to reduce the equality gap in various areas, whether in terms of employment or access to positions of power".
PAN, which presented a series of bills in parliament to protect women's rights, also criticised the government, warning of a "setback" in women's rights.
"It is not enough to say during an election campaign that we are all in favour of women's rights and then, when in government, not have public policies that can translate into that."
Also present at the march for women's rights, the leader of the Left Bloc, José Manuel Pureza, stressed that "women's rights are one of the main causes of democracy" and, therefore, the struggle is common to all people.
"This struggle is a struggle of men and women, because all these achievements were achievements in favour of the decency of society, in favour of the justice of society, and therefore they must, and indeed have to, unite women and men," he said.
The secretary-general of the PCP, Paulo Raimundo, warned that "in the current situation, everything is moving not forward, but backwards in terms of women's rights," pointing out that women are one of the groups most affected by the labour package.
"One of the sectors where there is the most job insecurity is among women, particularly low-paid women, and when there are plans to cut wages even further and deregulate working hours, we must say no and that there is another way, and that is what we have done here today, and in many other places around the country," the communist leader told journalists.
For one of the representatives for the Feminist Platform, participation in demonstrations such as today's is very important because "the world is being led by the far right and the PSD government is allowing itself to be led by the far right and also by its proposals".
Sunday afternoon's demonstrations in Lisbon, organised by the Democratic Women's Movement (MDM) and the Feminist Platform, also took place in dozens of Portuguese cities, with events scheduled in Porto, Faro, Santiago do Cacém, Portalegre, Torres Novas, Viana do Castelo, Vila Real and Viseu.
MBA/ADB // ADB.
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