For every year of Portuguese democracy there is one far-right deputy in the Assembly of the Republic. Fifty years and fifty deputies. A chance coincidence that, however, exposes the contradiction that Portuguese society is experiencing today, proud of the democracy it conquered in 1974 and surprised with the growth of the disenchanted who in the last elections embraced right-wing populism. This Thursday marks 50 years since the Carnation Revolution, a happy milestone in the gloomy history of the 20th century in Europe. The entire country has dedicated itself to commemorating the end of the repression that had lasted nearly half a century, since the military carried out a coup d’état in 1926.
The years of lead lasted until other soldiers staged another coup to do the opposite and democratize the country, in addition to stoning the nostalgic Portuguese imperialism, which explains why this Thursday numerous heads of state from the former colonies will participate in the events in Lisbon. The pacifism displayed by the April captains in 1974, added to the popular effervescence that soon took over the military operation to turn it into its own revolution, unleashed a wave of global admiration and recognition. To the infinite program of events, which includes talks, exhibitions, routes, historical recreations, concerts, official sessions and an unusual military parade in the Terreiro do Paço, in Lisbon, there have even been added some roundabouts such as the entrance to Montijo, where you can see a luminous giant carnation.
A fifth, with a positive opinion of the dictator
That is why it was impressive that, on the eve of the anniversary, on March 10, 18% of the Portuguese who went to the polls opted for Chega, a party with reactionary ideas that has grown at full speed in just five years of existence. . They may not be the same Portuguese who consider that the dictatorship that was defeated on April 25, 1974 should go down in history as a regime with more positive than negative things, but the truth is that the percentages are similar. A fifth of those surveyed in a recent survey published in the weekly Expresso has a high opinion of the days of the dictator Salazar and his successor, Marcelo Caetano.
At a dinner with foreign correspondents in Lisbon, the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, preferred to highlight the positive part of the study. 65% of the Portuguese consider that the 1974 revolution is the most important event in the history of Portugal, ahead of the entry into the European Union (formerly the European Economic Community) in 1985, the establishment of the Republic in 1910, the recovery of independence in 1640 after a few decades with Spanish kings or the arrival of Vasco de Gama to India in 1498. The appreciation towards April 25, 1974 has grown steadily in the last two decades.
The percentage of Portuguese who regret the benevolence that surrounded the protagonists of repressive activities has also not stopped growing. 59% today believe that they should have been tried, compared to 51% who thought the same 20 years ago. The assessment of the changes registered in democracy is almost always positive, especially in health care, standard of living, education or social security. Only 13% of those surveyed consider that the political process towards democracy is not a source of pride.
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The unanimity that existed among the political class regarding April’s legacy has been broken with the appearance of Chega. Without frontally attacking the date or showing open nostalgia for Salazarism, its leader, André Ventura, has chosen to undervalue its symbolism. “What went wrong in April? That April that we fill our mouths with to say 50 years since April 25. In the houses no one wants to know about that anymore, they want to know about the pension that does not increase and the corruption that increases. At home they don’t want to fulfill the carnations or ride in armored vehicles down Liberty Avenue. At home they want their children to have a safe school where they will not be attacked when they go to school. “Whoever is in Odemira or Beja does not want to know about April, they want to know about the invasion of immigrants,” he said in the Assembly of the Republic, during the plenary session that debated the new Government’s program.
The rise of populism also explains, in the opinion of the president of the April 25 Association, Vasco Lourenço, the interest that the commemoration has aroused abroad. “Suddenly, perhaps because people feel more frightened by the rise of the extreme right and are wary of democracy being questioned, the desire to reaffirm April intensifies. Not only in Portugal, also abroad. In the Western world, perhaps due to the rise of the extreme right and neo-fascists, April 25 has become a democratic reference,” Lourenço pointed out in a recent interview with the newspaper Public.
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