The Carnation Revolution

Olá my dear friends,

This month we are celebrating the national holiday of Freedom Day, the day when we left a dictatorial regime, which lasted 41 years, behind. The Carnation Revolution (Revolução dos Cravos) or 25 April (25 de Abril).

These dictatorial times are divided in two parts: Ditadura Nacional (1926-1933) and Estado Novo (1933-1974). The Estado Novo, greatly inspired by conservative and authoritarian ideologies, was developed by António de Oliveira Salazar. Opposed to communism, socialism, liberalism, and anti-colonialism, the pro-Roman Catholic Estado Novo regime advocated the retention of Portuguese colonies as a pluricontinental empire. Under the Estado Novo Portugal preserved a vast, centuries-old empire with a total area of 2,168,071 km².

The revolution started on 25 April 1974 as a military coup organized by the Movimento das Forças Armadas (Armed Forces Movement, MFA), composed of low-ranking military officers who opposed the regime, but the movement was soon coupled with an unanticipated and popular campaign of civil resistance. This movement would lead to the fall of the Estado Novo and the withdrawal of Portugal from its African colonies.

Although the regime's political police, PIDE, killed four people before surrendering, the revolution was unusual in that the revolutionaries did not use direct violence to achieve their goals. Holding red carnations (cravos in Portuguese), many people joined revolutionary soldiers on the streets of Lisbon, in apparent joy and audible euphoria.

Portugal went through a turbulent period, almost falling in a new dictatorship, this time a communist one. This period is commonly called the “Continuing Revolutionary Process” (Processo Revolucionário em Curso, or PREC) that lasted until 25 November 1975, the day of a pro-communist coup followed by a successful counter-coup by pro-democracy moderates, marked by constant friction between liberal-democratic forces and leftist/communist political parties. After a year, the first free election was carried out on 25 April 1975 in order to write a new Constitution that would replace the Constitution of 1933 which prevailed during the Estado Novo period.

From Portugal,
with love