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Portugal The Transition to Civilian Rule
Elections were held on April 25, 1975, for the
Constituent
Assembly to draft a constitution. The PS won nearly 38
percent
the vote, while the PPD took 26.4 percent. The PCP, which
opposed
the elections because its leadership expected to do
poorly, won
less than 13 percent of the vote. A democratic right-wing
party,
the Party of the Social Democratic Center (Partido do
Centro
Democrático Social--CDS), came in fourth with less than 8
percent
(see
table 11, Appendix). Despite the fact that the
elections
took place in a period of revolutionary ferment, most
Portuguese
voted for middle-class parties committed to pluralistic
democracy.
Many Portuguese regarded the elections as a sign that
democracy was being effectively established. In addition,
most
members of the military welcomed the beginning of a
transition to
civilian democracy. Some elements of the MFA, however, had
opposed the elections, agreeing to them only after working
out an
agreement with political parties that the MFA's policies
would be
carried out regardless of election results.
Following the elections came the "hot summer" of 1975
when
the revolution made itself felt in the countryside.
Landless
agricultural laborers in the south seized the large farms
on
which they worked. Many estates in the Alentejo were
confiscated-
-over 1 million hectares in all--and transformed into
collective
farms
(see Land Tenure and Agrarian Reform
, ch. 3). In the
north,
where most farms were small and owned by those who worked
them,
such actions did not occur. The north's small farmers,
conservative property-owners, violently repulsed the
attempts of
radical elements and the PCP to collectivize their land.
Some
farmers formed right-wing organizations in defense of
private
landownership, a reversal of the region's early welcoming
of the
revolution.
Other revolutionary actions were met with hostility, as
well.
In mid-July, the PS and the PPD withdrew from the fourth
provisional government to protest antidemocratic actions
by
radical military and leftist political forces. The PS
newspaper
República had been closed by radical workers,
causing a
storm of protest both domestically and abroad. The PS and
other
democratic parties were also faced with a potentially
lethal
threat to the new freedom posed by the PCP's open contempt
for
parliamentary democracy and its dominance in Portugal's
main
trade union, Intersindical, or as it came to be known in
1977,
the General Confederation of Portuguese Workers-National
Intersindical (Confederação Geral dos Trabalhadores
PortuguesesIntersindical Nacional--(CGTP-IN).
The United States and many West European countries
expressed
considerable alarm at the prospect of a Marxist-Leninist
takeover
in a NATO country. United States Secretary of State Henry
Kissinger told PS leader Soares that he would probably be
the
"Kerensky [the Russian social-democratic leader whose
short-lived
rule was the prelude to a Bolshevik takeover] of
Portugal." The
result of these concerns was an influx of foreign
financial aid
into Portugal to shore up groups committed to pluralist
parliamentary democracy.
By the time of the "hot summer" of 1975, several
currents
could be seen within the MFA. A moderate group, the Group
of
Nine, issued a manifesto in August that advocated
nonaligned
socialism along the lines of Scandinavian social
democracy.
Another group published a manifesto that criticized both
the
Group of Nine and those who had drawn close to the PCP and
singled out Prime Minister Gonçalves for his links to the
communists. These differences of opinion signaled the end
of the
fifth provisional government, in power only a month, under
Gonçalves in early September. Gonçalves was subsequently
expelled
from the Council of the Revolution as this body became
more
moderate. The sixth provisional government was formed,
headed by
Admiral José Baptista Pinheiro de Azevedo; it included the
leader
of the Group of Nine and members of the PS, the PPD, and
PCP.
This government, which was to remain in power until July
1976,
when the first constitutional government was formed, was
pledged
to adhere to the policies advocated by MFA moderates.
Evolving political stability did not reflect the
country as a
whole, which was on the verge of anarchy. Even the command
structure of the military broke down. Political parties to
the
right of the PCP became more confident and increasingly
fought
for order, as did many in the military. The granting of
independence to Mozambique in September 1975, to East
Timor in
October, and to Angola in November meant that the colonial
wars
were ended. The attainment of peace, the main aim of the
military
during all these months of political upheaval, was thus
achieved,
and the military could begin the transition to civilian
rule. The
polling results of the April 1975 constituent assembly
elections
legitimized the popular support given to the parties that
could
manage and welcome this transition.
An attempted coup by radical military units in November
1975
marked the last serious leftist effort to seize power.
They were
blocked, however, on November 25 after Colonel António dos
Santos
Ramalho Eanes declared a state of emergency. The
revolutionary
units were quickly surrounded and forced to surrender,
about 200
extreme leftists were arrested, and COPCON was abolished.
The
glamour of revolutionary goals had faded somewhat, and
people
returned to their jobs and daily routines after eighteen
months
of political and social turmoil. A degree of compromise
among
competing political visions of how the new state should be
organized was reached, and the constitution of 1976 was
proclaimed on April 2, 1976. Several weeks later, on April
25,
elections for the new parliament, the Assembly of the
Republic,
were held.
These elections could be said to be the definitive end
of a
period of revolution. Moderate democratic parties received
most
of the vote. Revolutionary achievements were not
discarded,
however. The constitution pledged the country to realize
socialism. Furthermore, the constitution declared the
extensive
nationalizations and land seizures of 1975 irreversible.
The
military supported these commitments through a pact with
the main
political parties that guaranteed its guardian rights over
the
new democracy for four more years.
Data as of January 1993
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