25/04/2014
Ángel Rivero. Autonomous University of Madrid
Friday, April 25th marks the 40th anniversary of the coup d’état that put an end to the Estado Novo and started a political change process that would lead to the current Portuguese democracy. The anniversary is surrounded, as it could not be otherwise when it comes to the country’s culture, by nostalgia and melancholy, the pitiful expression of a society that is not only going through a deep economic crisis but has also reached the mid-life crisis of its democracy.
The protagonists of that adventure of political innovation have either passed away or are now old, and the authorities of these last years are challenged by the current harsh reality. Like other European countries, the political class has to bear considerable responsibility with regard to today’s difficulties: due to its wrong decisions, but also, as it is part of the job, it has to accommodate the comfort of a society that wanted to enjoy an unprecedented abundance, the excesses of which have dissipated like the mist of a brief morning. And, being Portugal a country that loves and lives its political myths passionately, as can be seen in Pessoa’s Mensagem, this year’s anniversary is filled with the mythical drive of the Portuguese democracy’s founding moment
Portugal made 25 April the climacteric date of its current history, since it condensed two major events: on the one hand the toppling, by the captains of the Armed Forces Movement, of Marcello Caetano’s dictatorship, the continuation of a dictatorship that had survived its creator, Antonio de Oliveira Salazar, who was removed from power in 1986 and passed away in 1970 unaware of the fact that he had been overthrown; and, on the other hand, the anniversary, one year later, of the first democratic elections in the country, which resulted in an impressive political participation and a no less impressive victory of the forces of democracy over the revolutionary ones. Since then, Portugal is divided between two interpretations of the founding myth: that of those who believe that the military brought democracy to the people, and that of those who defend that the Portuguese people developed it by exercising it.
The former, revolutionary Bonapartism advocates, placed on the left of the Socialist Party, express these days their longing for a new Sebastiá who will emerge from the fog, disembark in Terreiro do Paço and save Portugal. The latter, the democratic bloc, placed on the right of the Socialist Party, have to bear the heavy burden of democratic responsibility in times of crisis, without the shelter of any political myth: Portugal ought to save itself. Friday, April 25th will pass, the 40th anniversary will be celebrated and Portugal will continue its normal life: some people, longing for the myth, and others, most of them, pursuing a mature democracy that needs to be renewed.