Tens of thousands of Portuguese celebrated the 50th on Thursdaye anniversary of the Carnation Revolution, in a bittersweet political climate.
What there is to know
Thousands of people celebrated the 50th on Thursdaye anniversary of the Carnation Revolution.
This historic event profoundly changed the face of the country, in particular by laying the foundations of current democracy.
The far right, on the rise, downplays its importance, while young people tend to turn the page.
Rosa Vieira will always remember April 25, 1974.
There had already been rumors, a vague wind of change. But when she turned on the radio in the middle of the night, she understood that the revolution had begun.
“It wasn’t normal programming,” says Mme Vieira, 82 years old.
Cautiously, the lady spent the following hours at home, in front of the transistor radio. When day dawned and it became clear that the coup had succeeded, she did like everyone else: with her daughter and her neighbor who had a car, she went to party in the streets of Lisbon.
“We’ve been everywhere. We shouted, we sang, we stormed all the florists and we bought all the carnations in Portugal. It was great ! One of the most beautiful memories of my life,” says this former communist activist.
PHOTO ARCHIVES AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Bouquets of carnations in hand, Portuguese people gathered in the center of Lisbon on 1er May 1974, six days after the fall of the dictatorship.
Half a century later, this memorable day does not only resonate in the memory of Rosa Vieira.
On Thursday, tens of thousands of Portuguese took to the streets singing the iconic Grandola, vila morenato mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Carnation Revolution led by young middle-ranking officers, which allowed Portugal to overthrow the oldest dictatorship in Europe and lay the foundations of its current democracy.
Ex-putschists notably paraded through the streets of the capital on their old armored vehicles, while the key moments of this historic event were reproduced, which has the particularity of having taken place at gunpoint, without bloodshed. or almost, the soldiers having been quickly joined by a jubilant population and decorated by the sellers of carnations, which have become the flower-symbol of this revoluçao spring.
A fading myth
The coup d’état of April 25, 1974 caused the collapse of the sinister Estado novo (New State) established by António Salazar 48 years earlier, and led to the independence of the colonies that Portugal still possessed in Africa, including Angola, Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau.
It also paved the way for an exemplary democratic transition. After the first elections in 1975, then the adoption of the Constitution in 1976, the country joined the European community in 1986 and gradually closed the economic gap accumulated during half a century of darkness.
Fifty years later, the Carnation Revolution remains fundamental for modern Portugal and generally represents a consensus within society and the political class. “For the Portuguese, it was the day we regained freedom,” simply sums up the historian Yves Léonard, author of the book Under the carnations, the revolution.
The expert notes, however, that the myth around this event tends to weaken, while memories fade and we are witnessing a resurgence of the extreme right in Portugal, something that we would never have expected. possible flood a few years ago.
PHOTO ARCHIVES AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
A speech is given in Rossio Square in Lisbon under the watchful eye of a soldier of the Armed Forces Movement, on 1er May 1974.
This is evidenced by the rise of the Chega party, which has just won 50 seats in the legislative elections in March, thus establishing itself as the third political force in the country, with a radical and reactionary right-wing discourse, sometimes hostile to April 25. “For them, it is an event carried out by leftist forces… which shook the social order and sold out the empire… This is everything that is not good”, summarizes Yves Léonard.
According to the historian, this uninhibited speech completely awakened voices critical of the revolution, who until then had “not dared too much” to express themselves. “It’s a word that is becoming commonplace,” he said.
This “trivialization” could even increase, underlines the historian, as time passes and Portuguese youth tend to turn the page.
There we arrive at generations who know nothing of the Salazarist past, who are largely ignorant of what April 25 was, and do not know concretely what it means.
Yves Léonard, historian
A sign of the times: 25% of 18-35 year olds would have voted for the Chega party in the last legislative elections, won over in part by the party’s speech on social networks.
However, we should not forget, concludes Rosa Vieira, referring to the rights acquired after April 25, 1974.
“Portugal today has nothing to do with that era. People are complaining. But people who experienced the situation before know that it is fifty times better now. Even if things don’t always go completely well, I really hope that we don’t go back…”
reference: www.lapresse.ca