Yearbook 2008
Portugal. According to
Countryaah reports, the leader of the opposition Social Democratic
Party (PSD), Luís Filipe Menezes, resigned in April after
failing to resolve the internal conflicts that the party
suffered in the wake of a corruption scandal in 2007.
Several high-ranking PSD politicians were involved in the
scandal, among other Lisbon mayors.
In the same month, laws were adopted that standardized
the spelling of hundreds of words in the Portuguese language
worldwide. The spelling rules adopted are those used in the
Brazilian variant of the language, which would reflect the
weight Brazil has on economic and population terms. In South
America there are 190 million Portuguese speakers, while
Portugal has just over 10 million residents.
1974 The carnation revolution
General Spinola, who shortly before the coup broke with
the regime and became the first president of the so-called
carnival revolution, represented the neo-colonialist
mindset. However, the coup itself was carried out by a group
of younger officers - the Captain's Movement, later the
Armed Forces Movement (MFA). It began as a protest against
poor working conditions and against a war that the officers
considered lost. Many of them had also become politically
conscious. Partly through contact with recent Marxist
thinking, and partly through contact with the theories and
practices of the African liberation movement. When Spinola
tried to determine the development - especially in the
colonial issue - over the summer of 1974 - MFA and the
left-wing parties pushed him to retire on September 28,
1974, and the uncompromising general Costa Gomes took over
the post.
It was clear that political tensions existed within MFA,
and over the fall and winter were the most radical sectors
of the offensive. They secured control over the government
and the Revolutionary Council, after Spinola on March 11,
1975, tried to conduct a counter-coup. Shortly after, land
reforms and nationalizations that led to significant
structural changes and stronger state control of the
monopolized Portuguese economy. At the same time, the road
was paved for complete independence to Portugal's former
colonies in Africa: Angola, Mozambique and Guinea Bissau.
During the same period, the Communists came to play an
important role in the administration, and the unity between
the Moscow-oriented Communist Party and several of its
leading officers - including Prime Minister Goncalves -
became increasingly evident. A number of officers also
sympathized with some of the many and divided movements on
the far left, accusing the Communists of centralism and
bureaucracy. At the same time, attempts were made to isolate
and harm the Socialist Party and in particular its
leadership around Mario Soares, who linked the Party to the
social democracies in Northern Europe - especially the West
German, which also provided important financial aid.
After the election to the Constitutional Assembly - which
gave the Socialists 38% of the vote, the Communists and
their allies 17, the far left 4 and the right wing 34% - the
conflict between the Socialists on the one hand and the
Communists and the MFA leadership on the other increased. At
the same time, a right turn took place within the army and
among the people of Northern Portugal. The election had
become a proof of what everyone already knew, namely that
Portugal was socially and politically divided into two: In
the Greater and industrial areas of the south, the
communists dominated, while receiving only a few percent of
the votes in the north, with smallholder and small industry
dominating.. Yet, at a general meeting, they had taken over
the local administration in a number of cities. In several
of these cities the population now turned to them and
stormed and set fire to the Communists' offices.
In addition, two offenses were launched against the
military and political leadership. Mario Soares and the
Socialists, who had withdrawn from the coalition government,
organized a series of fighting meetings, which partly
reflected, and intensified, the dissatisfaction with the
government. Within the officer movement, a nine-man group
around Major Melo Antunes sought to counter the Communist
Party's dominance without breaking the socialist objective.
The result was a new broad coalition government in September
and a military leadership in which the Antunes group played
a key role. This included the conclusion of MFA's desire for
a direct democracy based on district, factory and soldier
councils and trade union representatives, and where the MFA
had the role of a national liberation movement.
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