Photo: Ana Brigida Associated Press Tens of thousands of people flooded Lisbon's main avenue to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the Carnation Revolution.
Thomas Cabral – Agence France-Presse in Lisbon
Published on April 25
- Europe
Tens of thousands of people flooded Lisbon's main avenue to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the Carnation Revolution, a bloodless coup led by young officers to end 48 years dictatorship and 13 years of colonial wars in Africa.
High point of hundreds of initiatives spread over several weeks, the traditional popular parade along the Avenue of Liberty gathered a huge crowd in the afternoon.
“April 25, always! Fascism, never again,” shouted the demonstrators, red carnations in their hands or buttonholes.
“It’s a great joy to be here,” testified Helena Pereira, who was sixteen at the time of the events 50 years ago. “I experienced it intensely and I will remember it all my life,” added this retired storekeeper.
28-year-old student, Tiago Farinha paraded for the first time on an anniversary date of the advent of democracy, “because of the current political context”, marked by the rise in power of the far right in the legislative elections last month.
He holds up a poster that reads: ““God, Fatherland, Family” my ass! “. “It’s a cry of revolt because we have more and more populist forces that support this type of slogan,” he explains, referring to the maxim of dictator Antonio Salazar.
“A toxic subject”
Thursday began with a military ceremony in a large square in the center of Lisbon, on the edge of the Tagus estuary, in which military vehicles from the period restored for the occasion took part.
It ended with an event bringing together the Portuguese president, the conservative Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, and his counterparts from African countries that became independent after 1974: Angola, Mozambique, Guinea -Bissau, Cape Verde and Sao Tome and Principe.
M. Rebelo de Sousa had created a surprise by raising the question of possible colonial reparations ahead of this commemoration, but the subject was not broached by any of the participants.
Photo: Armando Franca Associated Press Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, during the military ceremony.
“We are responsible for what we did there. […] We have to pay the costs,” he said Tuesday evening during an informal meeting with the foreign press in Lisbon.
This position was immediately faced opposition from the new moderate right-wing government. “It’s a toxic subject” and “inopportune,” said a government source cited by the weekly Expresso.
During the “solemn session” organized Thursday morning in Parliament, the president no longer mentioned his suggestion, ignored by the left and criticized by the right.
Far-right leader André Ventura was the most vocal, accusing Mr Rebelo de Sousa of having “betrayed the Portuguese”. “Pay what ? Pay to whom ? […] I am proud of the history of this country,” he said.
“A peaceful revolution”
In the March 10 elections, his party “Chega” (“Enough”) clearly strengthened its rank as the third political force in the country with 18% of the votes.
According to a survey published last week, half of respondents believed that the authoritarian regime overthrown in 1974 had more negative aspects than positive ones, but a fifth said the opposite.
In any case, 65% considered the April 25 Revolution to be the most important event in Portuguese history, far ahead of the 1986 accession to what would become the European Union.
Photo: Ana Brigida Associated Press The Carnation Revolution was so named because the population, who immediately sided with the putschists, distributed these spring flowers to certain soldiers who planted them in the barrel of their rifles.
“The main motivation was to resolve the problem of the colonial war,” recalled retired colonel Vasco Lourenço, president of the April 25 Association, heir to the “captains’ movement” which organized the uprising.
The Carnation Revolution was so named because the population, who immediately sided with the putschists, distributed these spring flowers to certain soldiers who planted them in the barrel of their rifle.
“It will be above all the images taken that day which will transform the red carnation into a symbol of the April 25 Revolution which will end up giving a romantic, poetic vision to an act which took a lot of heroism, even if this revolution was particularly peaceful”, explains historian Maria Inacia Rezola, in charge of the vast program of commemorations.