A military parade, a popular demonstration and a series of official speeches will mark Thursday in Portugal the commemorations of the fiftieth anniversary of the Carnation Revolution, which opened the way to democracy in the country and the independence of its colonies in Africa. “The main motivation was to resolve the problem of the colonial war” which had lasted for 13 years in Angola, and almost as much in Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau, retired colonel Vasco Lourenço, president of the April 25 Association, heir to the “captains’ movement” which organized the uprising.
These young non-commissioned officers took almost a year to set up this “conspiracy” and carry out “a coup d’état aimed at opening the way to freedom, putting an end to the war and building democracy in Portugal”, adds -he. On April 25, 1974, the oldest authoritarian regime in Western Europe collapsed in a few hours, practically without bloodshed, thanks to the immediate support of a jubilant population. When a party planned in a restaurant was canceled, one of the waitresses took away the red carnations which were to be used to decorate the room and distributed them to passers-by, then to the soldiers who, some of them, stuck them in the barrel of their rifles .
Return of the far right to the political landscape
“It will be above all the images taken that day which will transform the red carnation into a symbol of the April 25 Revolution and which will end up giving a romantic, poetic vision to an act which had a lot of heroism, even if this revolution was particularly peaceful”, explains historian Maria Inacia Rezola, in charge of the vast program of commemorations. The culmination of hundreds of institutional and cultural initiatives spread over several weeks, Thursday will begin with a military parade including armored vehicles from the period, restored for the occasion.
At the end of the day, President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa will receive his counterparts from African countries that became independent after the Revolution: Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde and Sao Tome and Principe. And, like every year, the country’s main political leaders will speak during a “solemn session” scheduled for the morning in Parliament. In the afternoon, thousands of people are expected for the traditional popular parade in the center of Lisbon.
Beyond the fact that it is the 50th anniversary of the Revolution, the current political context, marked by a breakthrough by the far right in last month’s legislative elections, could increase participation in this event.
“A poor, backward, illiterate country isolated from the rest of the world”
“I thought that 48 years of dictatorship would have protected the country against this wave of populism and radical far-right movements, but the reality turned out to be different,” notes historian Maria Inacia Rezola. The regime that was overthrown in 1974 was born from a military dictatorship established in 1926. After being appointed Minister of Finance, the economist Antonio Salazar took the helm of the government between 1932 and 1968, to be later replaced by the professor by law Marcelo Caetano.
During these years of lead marked by Salazar’s slogan – “God, homeland, family” – Portugal remained “a poor, backward, illiterate country and isolated from the rest of the world”, notes Ms. Rezola. After months of tension which could have degenerated into civil war between pro-communist forces and currents favorable to liberal democracy, the revolutionary period closed on November 25, 1975 with a military intervention by General Antonio Ramalho Eanes, who became the following year the first democratically elected president of Portugal.
Another key figure of the time, the socialist Mario Soares won the first free elections by universal suffrage, organized on April 25, 1975 to form the constituent assembly which drafted the country’s current fundamental law.