No warrant, no warning. Over the past six months, Planeta Manas – a staple of Lisbon’s queer nightlife – has been raided three times by city police with questionable legal standing. Although often touted as one of the most LGBTQ+ friendly countries in the world, this new threat to queer-friendly spaces in the city puts its status in potentially dangerous waters.
Planeta Manas, one of Lisbon’s most popular queer haunts and the headquarters of the Mina Cultural Association, has faced three confrontations with the police in the space of four months. With neither a warrant nor a warning, as is alleged by the venue, these raids by the PSP represent a tactic of intimidation against a grassroots space dedicated to queer cultural expression.
Attendees and organisers alike have reported to GAY45 being subjected to mass searches, physical intimidation and derogatory remarks. Not knowing when the next assault is to come, the constant threat of police invasion hangs over the community. In the midst of this uncertainty, simply being present at a queer event becomes equated to a criminal act.
Each police incursion chips away at the vitality of Lisbon’s queer culture, turning a space of joy and resistance into one of fear and precarity. To understand the full scope of this repression, it is crucial to examine each of the three raids in detail—how they unfolded, the tactics used, and their impact on the community.
The October Raid
The author of this piece was present at the October event. Alongside other sources this is an eyewitness account.
On the night of 18 October 2024, Planeta Manas held a free event in partnership with production company Terratreme, aiming to film a scene for a movie about club culture. However, almost two hours after the event began, the party was unexpectedly overrun by a Rapid Intervention Team (EIR). Armed with truncheons and with faces covered, the police forced all attendees into the main dancefloor. The surrounding metal gates, typically used to hang up lighting, suddenly became a cage behind which all 188 party goers were detained for over two hours.
Speaking to GAY45, António Gonzalez, a professor of psychology present at the event, explains how the music stopped ‘all of a sudden.’ ‘Looking to the DJ,’ he saw they were just ‘as perplexed as us.’ He explains further how ‘we start[ed] to see… policemen with their sticks. They just said you cannot leave the premises. I was trying to understand what was happening.’
Attempting to get answers, António began ‘trying to talk to the police and asking if there was a warrant… ask[ing] for a responsible person,’ but was met with silence. When he asked, ‘am I under arrest?’ he was told to speak to a superior officer. Posing the same question to a superior, he was told no. Yet, when he asked, ‘can I leave?’ the response was, ‘I will have to search you.’ He pushed back—’Do you have a warrant for that?’—only to be told no. This exchange continued for over half an hour.
A PSP spokesperson told GAY45, in response to our inquiry about the absence of warrants and allegations of unauthorised searches, that on the ‘19 October 2024 [the event continued past midnight of 18 October]: Various quantities of substances suspected to be narcotics were seized,’ leaving our question about search warrants unaddressed.
Citing a ‘routine inspection’, the PSP shut the event down. In order to leave the venue, every individual was forced into a slow-moving queue, segregated by perceived sex, and subjected to a police search.
Furthermore, according to attendees and organisers, during this incursion the PSP exhibited queerphobic and moralising behavior. Tiago Hespanha, the filmmaker at the event, told the Portuguese daily newspaper Público that an officer asked him ‘Would you want to have a child in this environment?’. Further, organiser Inês Coutinho, speaking to TSF Rádio Notícias, recounted overhearing police say, ‘This place is just faggots, just a bunch of queers.’
Afterwards, there was debate surrounding the reason why the invasion took place, with Público portraying the drugs discovered during the searches as justification for the raid. However, in the words of Coutinho, ‘the only seizures were individual doses, which is something that happens in all music spaces… the seizures weren’t even significant enough for them to take anyone to the station…*. In other words, I don’t see anything here that wouldn’t be just as common at this hour in any other cultural space.’
Planeta Manas went on to hold its next event on the 25th, undeterred and supported by an influx of donations from the community. However, as evidenced by later invasions, the threat of police violence remained present.
*In Portugal, personal possession and use of all drugs are decriminalized, treating drug use as a health issue rather than a criminal offense, while maintaining penalties for trafficking and cultivation.
The December Raid
On 20 December 2024, Planeta Manas alleges that the PSP tried to invade once again without a warrant. In a statement from Planeta Manas, they explained how, ‘as is our right, we denied entry and requested to speak with the task force leader outside.’ The venue claims this was met with anger by the police, who after an hour ‘threatened to conduct illegal searches on dozens of our members [i.e, normal attendees] who were waiting on the street.’
Having forced the members to leave under the threat of an illegal search, the venue states that the police entered their vehicles to withdraw from the scene without giving an explanation. The organisers say they asked to speak with the task force leader and were told, contrary to what had transpired, that, ‘there was no police operation underway.’ Furthermore, when questioned, the police refused to identify themselves, as alleged by news site Abril, opting not to provide their badge numbers.
Faced with this indignity, the venue states that one of their leaders ‘peacefully stood in front of a police van to prevent them from leaving without any explanation.’ In retaliation, the venue alleges that all officers charged from their vehicles towards both members and organisers with batons drawn. They claim a member was struck, while others were jostled and pushed.
The venue further claims that, once again, there was no ‘official report, case file, record of the incident, or proof of apprehended items.’
GAY45 reached out to the PSP asking about the legal basis for their operations, the absent warrants, accusations of excessive force, and the repeated targeting of Planeta Manas in the preceding months. In line with the venue’s accusation that no report was recorded of this incident, the PSP further made no reference to any December event in their response. Furthermore, while an October event was mentioned, this was not done so in a manner answering our questions.
What we have been told is that a year prior on the 10 November 2023, the police recorded several autos de contraordenação (infraction reports) that detailed the following: ‘Operating outside permitted hours; Alcohol sales violations; Tobacco sales violations; Waste management violations; Invoicing and billing irregularities; Failure to display operating hours.’
Speaking to a non-profit collective of activists and lawyers based in Lisbon, GAY45 was able to clarify that, ‘an auto de contraordenação is a written document drawn up by a competent authority, which can also be the police or another administrative body, when it identifies an administrative offence, with the aim of formalising the respective offence committed, thus initiating the administrative process with a view to imposing a penalty. The administrative offence notice is only used in administrative proceedings.’
They explained to us how this differs from a mandado, which ‘is a document usually issued by a judge ordering an agent of the authority, for example the police, to carry out a certain order, for example a search or seizure of objects.’
Regarding whether an auto de contraordenação would empower the police to conduct searches, they explained that ‘as a general rule, an administrative offence notice alone does not legitimise a search, but it can be a lead-up to one. However, as a general rule, a warrant/mandado or order from a judicial authority would still be necessary.’
‘We believe, however, that there may be exceptions to this rule, but that the administrative offence notice alone does not seem to imply such an exception.’
The February Raid
On the 8 February 2025, Planeta Manas was subject to another police raid. According to the organisers, police in plain clothes forced their way into the venue, neither identifying themselves nor showing a warrant. In a statement, the organisers explain how ‘given the violence with which they arrived and because we saw a gun, we thought it was a robbery.’ Soon after, a second wave of Rapid Intervention Forces invaded, ‘armed and hooded.’
Similar to past incursions, the venue states that members were illegally searched, with the police going so far as to intimidate those who tried to film and document the situation. Furthermore, organisers note that during the last raid, ‘when agents from the Tax Authority, ASAE and Civil Protection came, we had super fluid communication,’ and they ‘presented all the documentation, all the licenses.’ In stark contrast, without the presence of the agents ‘the PSP’s behavior was abysmally different… When they come here alone, they behave very differently to when they are being observed by institutional colleagues.’
Such was the public outcry towards the actions of the police that, on the 13 February, the Left Bloc party (Bloco de Esquerda) questioned the Minister of Internal Affairs about the reasons behind the repeated raids on the venue. They further asked about the legal grounds for allowing armed, plainclothes, and unidentified officers to forcibly enter the premises of the cultural space.
Speaking to the PSP, GAY45 was told that ‘the recent inspection was solely aimed at assessing operational conditions (or the lack thereof) and did not involve any searches or frisking under the policing measures prescribed by law.’
Furthermore, during the February raid, they told us they had identified several auto de noticia (infractions) and referred them to the relevant agencies, which then issued the corresponding violation notices: ‘1 citation issued by ASAE for copyright infringement; 3 citations issued by the ATA for tax violations; 8 citations issued by the Civil Protection of Loures for building safety infractions.’
Speaking to the same collective, they explained that ‘an auto de notícia is a written document drawn up by a competent authority, which can be the police or another administrative body, and essentially serves to report the occurrence of a crime or offence to the competent authorities, so that they in turn can investigate and initiate the respective process. Although it is more related to criminal proceedings, it is also used in administrative proceedings.’
They further clarified that, ‘in this case, the offences in question appear to be administrative offences, and therefore not criminal offences.’
Overall, there exists a rift between the narratives presented by the police and by the venue. The PSP claims the February operation ‘did not involve any searches or frisking’, as told to GAY45 – and was further ‘executed with the means deemed necessary… without any type of incident/disturbance of public order to report,’ as told to the online journal A Cabine.
Looking at video evidence, of party goers surrounded by officers chanting ‘25th of April* forever – Fascism, never again!’ and looking at photographic evidence, of police lining the streets, blocking the entrances, and pouring into the venue, the claim that there was no ‘incident/disturbance of public order to report’ remains contentious.
The PSP denies conducting searches during the February raid and omits any mention of searches in relation to the other raids. However, as the author of this piece, I can confirm that in October, all attendees, myself included, were only allowed to leave the venue after being searched by a PSP officer. While we cannot independently verify whether searches took place in February, the October discrepancy sets a reasonable precedent for the police withholding information on this issue.
Clarifying the situations where searches would be legally permissible, GAY45 was told that, ‘As a general rule, the police need a warrant/mandado or an order from a judicial authority in order to carry out searches,’ a document the PSP never mentioned having in their response.
*On April 25th, 1974 – the Estado Novo dictatorship officially fell with the Carnation Revolution
Conclusions
Ultimately, these abuses serve to threaten the longevity of a key cultural space at the heart of Lisbon’s queer community. As a grassroots organisation, Planeta Manas runs at a loss – stating in their fundraiser that ‘this project, which is horizontal and serves the most marginalised artistic community, survives financially from month to month,’ further explaining that ‘the interruption of the 18 October event robbed us of a very significant part of our monthly survival budget.’
Beyond causing indirect financial damage, the PSP has expressed intentions to shut the venue down, stating: ‘This venue operates without any authorisation under the Legal Framework for Urbanisation and Construction, and due to its repeated non-compliance with the law, the PSP will propose its closure to the Loures City Council. This decision considers the absence of safety conditions necessary for its operation and aligns with Civil Protection’s classification of “…failure to uphold the fundamental principle of human life preservation…”’
Attacks against the queer community are on the rise and are leveraged along legal and social frontiers. In Madrid, the police are increasingly targeting gay men as drug suspects. In Lisbon, queer spaces face repeated confrontations with the police. The raids on Planeta Manas are not isolated incidents but part of a broader European pattern of repression, where the state weaponises legality to undermine spaces that exist outside mainstream, commercial frameworks.
Accounts from the venue, organisers, and attendees depict a worrying ordeal. They describe an experience of facing armed intrusions without notice, detention without explanation, and mass searches. Matters of regulation and bureaucracy alone can not convey what has transpired. There is another side to this story; this is a community that has been made to feel fear.
Planeta Manas continues to operate, bolstered by community support and an unwavering commitment to survival. Yet the question remains: how many more raids, how many more forced closures, before these tactics succeed in erasing what has been built?
We must protect our queer spaces; the fight for our right to exist lives and dies alongside them.
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