On April 25, 1974, a coup d’etat of young captains overthrew a dictatorship which has almost half a century and opened a revolutionary period in Portugal. The historian Victor Pereira evokes the genesis of this event and his repercussions, between upheavals, success and doubts.
THE XXe Portuguese century has been marked by a decisive event: the coup organized on April 25, 1974 by insurgent captains. In less than twenty-four hours, a dictatorship of forty-eight years fell. At the level of this long authoritarian chronology of almost 17,500 days, the night of the coup seems infinitesimal, but it is however at the base of current democracy. The fact that April 25 is a public holiday since April 1975 is a sign of this break. The year 2024 was marked by the multiplication of scientific and cultural events around the fiftieth anniversary of April 25, 1974.
It is within this framework that we must insert the publication of Victor Pereira’s work, alongside other publications in French. Lecturer at the University of Pau and the countries of the Adour, he is currently attached to the Institute of Contemporary History of the New University of Lisbon. He is, with Yves Léonard, one of the main historians of XXe Portuguese century in activity in France. The title of the work, It is the people who commandcould surprise, but from the introductory chapter, Victor Pereira gives the key to understanding: it is the translation of O povo é quem but ordena repeated three times in the song Grândola Vila Morena From artist Zeca Afonso, broadcast on April 25, 1974 on Renascença radio. This sentence is also the assertion of one of the major ideas defended by Victor Pereira: that of a coup certainly initiated by the military, but to which popular participation has from the start given a revolutionary dimension.
Soldiers at the forefront ?
Thanks to archives consulted in Portugal, France and the United States, the historian widens the focal length beyond the only coup, while the treatment of the event in Portuguese historiography is often exclusively centered on Portugal. After a short introduction, the first two chapters go up the chronology to explain the causes of the coup of April 25, 1974, mainly the role of the army in Portugal and the colonial question.
The army actually plays a key role in installing the dictatorship in 1926. If its weight varies during the authoritarian period, it fills at a minimum Symbolic functions, since all the presidents of the Republic are chosen from its ranks. Even António de Oliveira Salazar, president of the council between 1932 and 1968, is indeed “ aware that its maintenance in power depends on the military (P. 18). The army returned to the foreground during the 1960s with decolonization. The Portuguese Empire, central to dictatorial rhetoric, was then disputed by independentist movements. It is around his defense that the Portuguese power concentrates until its loss. By insisting on the Empire from the first chapter, Victor Pereira rightly accompanies the historiographical tendency to make it one of the foundations of the dictatorship. Forgotten during the 1980s and 1990 decades, colonial studies multiplied from the 2000s and gave the Empire a crucial place in dictatorial history.
After the stampede in Goa in 1961, the leaders decided to send the army as well as all the conscripts-800,000 in total (p. 33)-in Angola, in Guinea-Bissau and in Mozambique. While Salazar is replaced by Marcelo Caetano in 1968, the generals who are more or less on the front, like António de Spínola, intend to carry an alternative project in the face of the dead end of the colonial war: some advocate decolonization ; others, like Spínola, a Commonwealth Portuguese. However, it is the intermediary bodies of the army, of young officers and especially of the captains, who structure dissatisfaction as Victor Pereira recalls in the second chapter entitled “ The forge of April 25 ». They come from the small middle class and “ are therefore relatively socially close to the many simple soldiers (P. 49). They have the feeling of knowing the people. The movement of the armed forces (Mfa) is created at the end of 1973 and developed a program built around three D: democratizing, decolonizing and developing. The soldiers went into action on April 25, 1974 and managed to bring down the regime.
The emergence of the people: take the side of the revolution
From the third chapter, Victor Pereira insists on the importance of the place of the people. While the insurgent soldiers had asked the population not to go out, citizens did not follow the instructions and came to support them. This civic presence changes the coup in the revolution, and the soldiers of Mfa claim to be the embodiment of a popular will.
In the fourth chapter, Victor Pereira insists on this change in the revolution and therefore affirms its revolutionary dimension somewhat elected in contemporary political discourse. He recalls the occupations of housing and the multiplication of strike movements and demonstrations. It is “ The explosion of joy (P. 100), and the Portuguese revolutionary movement provokes active citizen participation as shown by the multiplication of political parties. The provisional government is made up of soldiers, but also civilians whose communists, despite the fear that the latter arouse in Westerners. The resistance of the people also involves the refusal to continue the fight in Africa and therefore accelerate the decolonization which takes place between 1974 and 1975 despite the reluctance of Spínola, then President of the Republic. THE Mfa “” appears as the sting of the revolution (P. 133) and pushes Spínola to resign in September 1974. Consequently, it is indeed the people, embodied by the Mfawho commands and the government tries as best they can to follow citizen aspirations.
The hesitations of the revolution
The course of the Revolution is marked by many twists and turns that Victor Pereira evokes in the following chapters whose titles highlight the hesitations of the revolutionary movement. Chapter 5 evokes the “ Cracks “, The sixth wonders about” A Cuba in Europe ». After the departure of Spínola, the demonstrators fear indeed a reactionary backlash and especially want to defend the Revolution. The provisional government is opposed to the way of leading the revolution. A failed coup of Spínola in March 1975 accelerates social movements and the government changed even more on the left. However, the constituent elections of April 25, 1975 with a 92% participation rate show on the one hand the adhesion of the population to the revolutionary movement and support for moderate parties that arrive at the top.
From July 1975, far -left groups intended to fight the fights to deepen the Revolution. They seek to create a socialist society, amplify social demands and better distribute wealth and land. On the other side of the political chessboard, the Catholic right is increasingly virulent against the agitation of the far left. The tendencies of the provisional government are opposed while the Portuguese and Portuguese living in Angola are forced to return to metropolitan France, fleeing the civil war. While the economic situation is deteriorating and unemployment grows, political dissensions are always very strong, in particular on the left. The extreme left, however, lost its credibility during the coup d’etat failed on November 25, 1975. The reflux was then fairly rapid: the putschist soldiers were imprisoned, the agitate foreigners expelled, ending revolutionary tourism, the media too on the left taken over. At the same time, the work of the National Constituent Assembly continues. It was voted in April 1976. The without difficulty holding of presidential and local elections corroborates the institutionalization of democracy, especially since the prospect of European integration becomes the horizon of Portuguese political life.
The conclusion questions the scope of the historical event that is April 25. The attachment of Portuguese and Portuguese to April 25, 1974 and to the democracy which it gave birth to is always clear. However, Victor Pereira highlights the push of the extreme right in Portugal as the fiftieth anniversary approaches, a party which openly criticizes on April 25.
A relevant study
Victor Pereira’s work marks an important step in the dissemination in France of the history of the end of the dictatorship and the revolutionary period until the establishment of the democratic constitution. It provides French to a in -depth, rigorous and detailed study in French of a complex period which may still seem difficult to grasp as it is rich. The relevant choice of chronological treatment of the eyelet revolution allows readers to find their way easier.
The introduction, a little short, could have briefly present the history of studies on the Portuguese revolution in order to better locate the book in historiographical production. In addition, the author could have better explained the approach followed in the work. However, the study is convincing insofar as it judiciously mixes many themes, like the plurality of upheavals trained by the Carnation Revolution. Thus, the author also addresses the political, diplomatic, economic, cultural and social consequences of April 25, 1974 in a fairly balanced way. Without being able to claim exhaustiveness, the examples mobilized are convincing and always firmly supported by references to the archives. Systematizing references to historiographical work, less cited, could have enriched the perspective and confront the different approaches.
In addition, points of comparison with other revolutionary situations would have been welcome and would have made it possible to exceed a little the Portuguese horizon, especially since they were able to serve as a reference to the actresses and actors of the Portuguese revolution. Likewise, it would have been interesting to multiply the mentions in the international context, notably marked by the economic crisis following the oil shock. Finally, it could have been relevant to further deepen the echoes of the Portuguese revolution internationally, in particular because they are not very treated.
Addressing in a book of less than three hundred pages in a certainly short period, but also politically, economically and socially dense is already a success in itself. The synthetic effort carried out by Victor Pereira is a successful bet. It clearly contributed to a better knowledge of the Portuguese political and social history of the Mitan of the 1970s.