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Portugal Spínola and Revolution
A key catalytic event in the process toward revolution
was
the publication in 1973 General António de Spínola's book,
Portugal and the Future, which criticized the
conduct of
the war and offered a far-ranging program for Portugal's
recovery. The general's work sent shock waves through the
political establishment in Lisbon. As the first major and
public
challenge to the regime by a high-ranking figure from
within the
system, Spínola's experience in the African campaigns gave
his
opinions added weight. The book was widely seen--a correct
assessment as it turned out--as the opening salvo in
Spínola's
ambitious campaign to become president.
On April 25, 1974, a group of younger officers
belonging to
an underground organization, the Armed Forces Movement
(Movimento
das Forças Armadas--MFA), overthrew the Caetano regime,
and
Spínola emerged as at least the titular head of the new
government. The coup succeeded in hours with virtually no
bloodshed. Caetano and other high-ranking officials of the
old
regime were arrested and exiled, many to Brazil. The
military
seized control of all important installations.
Spínola regarded the military's action as a simple
military
coup d'état aimed at reorganizing the political structure
with
himself as the head, a renovação (renovation) in
his
words. Within days, however, it became clear that the coup
had
released long pent-up frustrations when thousands, and
then tens
of thousands of Portuguese poured into the streets
celebrating
the downfall of the regime and demanding further change.
The
coercive apparatus of the dictatorship--secret police,
Republican
Guard, official party, censorship--was overwhelmed and
abolished.
Workers began taking over shops from owners, peasants
seized
private lands, low-level employees took over hospitals
from
doctors and administrators, and government offices were
occupied
by workers who sacked the old management and demanded a
thorough
housecleaning.
Very early on, the demonstrations began to be
manipulated by
organized political elements, principally the PCP and
other
groups farther to the left. Radical labor and peasant
leaders
emerged from the underground where they had been operating
for
many years. Soares, the leader of the Socialist Party
(Partido
Socialista--PS) and Álvaro Cunhal, head of the Portuguese
Communist Party (Partido Comunista Português--PCP)
returned from
exile to Portugal within days of the revolt and received
heroes'
welcomes.
Who actually ruled Portugal during this revolutionary
period
was not always clear, and various bodies vied for
dominance.
Spínola became the first interim president of the new
regime in
May 1974, and he chose the first of six provisional
governments
that were to govern the country until two years later when
the
first constitutional government was formed. Headed by a
prime
minister, the moderate civilian Adelino da Palma Carlos,
the
government consisted of the moderate Popular Democratic
Party
(Partido Popular Democrata--PPD), the PS, the PCP, five
independents, and one military officers.
Beneath this formal structure, several other groups
wielded
considerable power. In the first weeks of the revolution,
a key
group was the Junta of National Salvation, composed
entirely of
high-ranking, politically moderate military officers.
Working
alongside it was a seven-member coordinating committee
made up of
politically radical junior officers who had managed the
coup. By
the end of May 1974, these two bodies worked together with
other
members in the Council of State, the nation's highest
governing
body.
Gradually, however, the MFA emerged as the most
powerful
single group in Portugal as it overruled Spínola in
several major
decisions. Members of the MFA formed the Continental
Operations
Command (Comando Operacional do Continente--COPCON)
composed of
5,000 elite troops with Major (later Brigadier General)
Otelo
Saraiva de Carvalho as its commander. Known universally by
his
unusual first name Otelo, Carvalho had directed the April
25
coup. Because the regular police withdrew from the public
sector
during the time of revolutionary turmoil and the military
was
somewhat divided, COPCON became the most important force
for
order in the country and was firmly under the control of
radical
left-wing officers.
Spínola formed a second provisional government in
mid-July
with army Colonel (later General) Vasco Gonçalves as prime
minister and eight military officers along with members of
the
PS, PCP, and PPD. Spínola chose Gonçalves because he was a
moderate, but he was to move increasingly to the left as
he
headed four provisional governments between July 1974 and
September 1975. Spínola's position further weakened when
he was
obliged to consent to the independence of Portugal's
African
colonies, rather than achieving the federal solution he
had
outlined in his book. Guinea-Bissau gained independence in
early
September, and talks were underway on the liberation of
the other
colonies. Spínola attempted to seize full power in late
September
but was blocked by COPCON and resigned from office. His
replacement was the moderate General Francisco de Costa
Gomes.
Gonçalves formed a third provisional government with heavy
MFA
membership, nine military officers in all, and members of
the PS,
PCP, and PPD.
In the next year, Portuguese politics moved steadily
leftward. The PCP was highly successful in placing its
members in
many national and local political and administrative
offices, and
it was consolidating its hold on the country's labor
unions. The
MFA came ever more under the control of its radical wing,
and
some of its members came under the influence of the PCP.
In
addition, smaller, more radical left-wing groups joined
with the
PCP in staging huge demonstrations that brought about the
increasing adoption of leftist policies, including
nationalizations of private companies.
An attempted coup by Spínola in early March 1975
failed, and
he fled the country. In response to this attack from the
right,
radical elements of the military abolished the Junta of
National
Salvation and formed the Council of the Revolution as the
country's most powerful governing body. The council was
made
responsible to a 240-member radical military parliament,
the
Assembly of the Armed Forces. A fourth provisional
government was
formed, more radical than its predecessor, and was headed
by
Gonçalves, with eight military officers and members of the
PS,
PCP, PPD, and Portuguese Democratic Movement (Movimento
Democrático Português--MDP), a party close to the PCP.
The new government began a wave of nationalizations of
banks
and large businesses
(see Nationalization
, ch. 3). Because
the
banks were often holding companies, the government came
after a
time to own almost all the country's newspapers, insurance
companies, hotels, construction companies and many other
kinds of
businesses, so that its share of the country's gross
national
product
(GNP--see Glossary)
amounted to 70 percent.
Data as of January 1993
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