Yesterday, Portugal celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the Carnation Revolution, which marked the end of dictatorship and the beginning of democracy.
The day began with a caravan of military vehicles that traveled the same route that led to the fall of the dictatorship in 1974. Fifteen cars, driven by some of the hundred so-called April captains, who revolted half a century ago , they arrived at Lisbon’s Commerce Square from Santarém (about 80 km to the north).
In the capital, they first participated in a military ceremony led by President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, and then interacted with thousands of people present in the square, many with carnations, like those placed by the military on the cannons of their rifles on the 25 of April 1974. Thus, the armored cars, all-terrain vehicles and trucks that had carried soldiers for so many years were commanded by children, parents and grandparents, who made long lines to get on them.
Later, in front of Parliament, Rebelo de Sousa, who on Tuesday had opened a controversial question about possible colonial reparations, recalled that recent studies indicate that there are “overwhelming percentages” of people who feel “nostalgia” for the past. That is why he encouraged to have “the humility and intelligence to always prefer democracy, even if it is imperfect, to dictatorship”. The president was interrupted by applause when he said that “they are the truly unfinished democracies, the strongest and most creative societies in the world.”
The commemoration takes place after the April elections, in which the far-right Chega party came in third place, a fact that its leader, André Ventura, did not hesitate to highlight yesterday. “Fifty years since that April, fifty deputies from Chega ironically arrived in this assembly”, said Ventura.
According to the recent survey referred to by Rebelo de Sousa, 23% of Portuguese feel nostalgic for Salazar’s dictatorship.
