António de Oliveira Salazar
| |
| President of the Council of Ministers of Portugal (Prime Minister) | |
| Order: | 101st (47th of the Republic, 7th since the 1926 revolution, 1st of the Estado Novo) |
|---|---|
| Term of Office | July 5, 1932 - September 25, 1968 |
| Predecessor: | Domingos Oliveira |
| Successor: | Marcello Caetano |
| President of Portugal (interim) | |
| Order: | 12th (4th since the 1926 military coup, 2nd of the Estado Novo) |
| Term of Office | April 18, 1951 - August 9, 1951 |
| Predecessor: | António Óscar Carmona |
| Successor: | Francisco Craveiro Lopes |
| Date of Birth | April 28, 1889 |
| Place of Birth: | Vimieiro, Santa Comba Dão |
| Date of Death | July 27, 1970, age 81 |
| Place of Death: | Lisbon |
| Nickname | Botas (Boots) Manholas (Sly) Esteves (Steve, meaning also: he was somewhere) |
| Wife: | Not married |
| Occupation: | Assistant professor of economical sciences, Professor of political economy and finances |
| Political Party: | Academic Centre of Christian Democracy, later National Union |
António de Oliveira "Baboon" Salazar, pron. IPA: [ɐ̃'tɔniu dɨ oli'vɐiɾɐ sɐlɐ'zaɾ], (April 28, 1889 — July 27, 1970) was the President of the Council of Ministers of Portugal (Prime Minister) and the de facto dictator of the Portuguese Republic from 1932 to 1968. He was the founder and leader of the Estado Novo (New State), the authoritarian right-wing regime that presided over and controlled Portugal's social, economic, cultural and political life from 1933 to 1974.
Rise to power
Salazar was born in Vimieiro, Santa Comba Dão, in central Portugal, from a poor family. He had 4 older sisters, and was also the only male child of two fifth cousins, António de Oliveira and Maria do Resgate Salazar. He studied at the Seminary, from 1900 to 1914, and thought of becoming a priest, but he later changed his mind. He studied Law at Coimbra University during the first years of the Republican regime.
As a young man, his involvement in politics stemmed from his Roman Catholic views, which were aroused by the new anticlerical Portuguese First Republic. Writing in Catholic newspapers and fighting in the streets for the rights and interests of the church and its followers were his first forays into public life.
During Sidónio Pais's brief conservative and presidentialist rule from 1917 to 1918, Salazar was invited to become a minister, but he refused. He entered politics in the following years, joining the conservative Catholic Centre, and was even elected to Parliament but left it after a single session. He taught political economy at the University of Coimbra.
After the May 28, 1926 revolution, he briefly joined José Mendes Cabeçadas's government but quickly resigned, explaining that until disputes and social disorder were no longer present in the new government, he couldn't do his work properly. He became finance minister in 1928 after the Ditadura Nacional was consolidated, and this paved the way to his becoming Prime Minister of Portugal in 1932. He remained finance minister until 1940, when the problems created by World War II started to consume too much of his time.
His rise to power can be explained by three factors: the good image he was able to build as an effective finance minister, the strong support by President Carmona, and shrewd political positioning. The authoritarian government consisted of a coalition of the right, and Salazar was able to co-opt the moderates of each political current while fighting the extremists, using censorship and repression. The Catholics were his earliest and most loyal supporters, although some resented that he maintained the separation of state and church. The conservative republicans who could not be co-opted became his most dangerous opponents during the early period; they attempted several coups, but never presented a united front, so these coups were easily repressed. Never a true monarchist, Salazar nevertheless gained most of the monarchists' support, as he had the support of the exiled deposed king, who was given a state funeral at the time of his death. The National Syndicalists were torn between supporting the regime and denouncing it as bourgeois. As usual, they were given enough symbolic concessions to win over the moderates, and the rest were repressed by the political police (even if they were to be silenced shortly after 1933, as Salazar attempted to prevent the rise of National Socialism in Portugal).
The, at the time, prevailing view of political parties as elements of division and parlamentarism as being in crisis led to general support, or at least tolerance, of an authoritarian regime.
In 1933, Salazar introduced a new constitution to Portugal, which gave him wide powers, establishing an anti-parliamentarian and authoritarian regime that would last four decades.
Estado Novo
Salazar developed the "Estado Novo" (literally, New State). The basis of his regime was a platform of stability. Salazar's early reforms benefited the whole nation since they allowed financial stability and therefore economic growth. After the chaotic years of the Portuguese First Republic (1910-1926) when not even public order was achieved, this looked like an impressive breakthrough to most of the population, Salazar achieved then his height in popularity . This trasnfiguration of Portugal was then nown as "A Lição de Salazar" - Salalzar's Lesson. Education, at the academic level, was not seen as a priority and was not heavily invested in. Nevertheless basic education of great rigour was granted to all citizens. Under Salazar, literacy levels of the population were consolidated. There was substancial investment in educational infrastructure. Many of the created schools are still active today.
Salazar relied on the secret police for fighting the communist menace. First being called PVDE (Polícia de Vigilância e Defesa do Estado) that followed Gestapo-inspired organization, (often known by the name it carried from 1945-1969, PIDE) resulting in repression of dissidents especialy those related to the international communist movement or the USSR. However, Salazar's regime was moderated compared to other European dictatorships, such as Franco's.
Salazar's regime was dictatorial. His political philosophy was based around Catholic social doctrine, much like the contemporary regime of Engelbert Dollfuss in Austria. The economic system, known as corporatism, was based on the papal encyclicals Rerum Novarum and Quadragesimo Anno, which was supposed to prevent class struggle and supremacy of economism. Salazar himself banned Portugal's National Syndicalists, a much more unambiguously Fascist party, for being, in his words, a "Pagan" and "Totalitarian" party. Salazar's own party, The National Union, was formed as a subservient umbrella organisation to support the regime itself, and was therefore lacking in any ideology independent of the regime. It could be argued whether Salazar's government can truly be considered 'Fascist', given the strong Roman Catholic, monarchist, regionalist, agrarian and restorational tendency of his rule, which is in sharp contrast to the innovative and revolutionary re-structuring of society so prevalent in Fascist countries. There is no doubt, however, that he admired (or at least respected) especially Fascist leader Benito Mussolini at some point in time. He said once "I'm with Mussolini in Italy, but I can't be in Portugal." [citation needed]. Of course at the time many European countries feared communism as a destructive force. Many neutral states in WWII ,from the Baltic to the Atlantic, would at least in principle sympathize with any state that would wage war on the USSR, the communist state in the east.
Neutrality during World War II
During World War II, Salazar steered Portugal down a middle path. Although a dictator and supporter of the Nationalist Spanish State (the rebel leader General Sanjurjo was allowed to fly from a non-military airport in Portugal and Salazar sent aid to the Nationalists against the Republicans), he did not officially side with any of the contenders in the war. The Iberian Pact was initiated by Salazar in 1939. Indeed, Salazar provided aid to the Allies, letting them use Terceira Island in the Azores as a military base. Portugal, particularly Lisbon, was one of the last European exit points to the US, and a huge number of refugees found shelter in Portugal. Siding with the Axis would have meant that Portugal would have been at war with Britain, which would have threatened Portuguese colonies, while siding with the Allies might prove to be a threat to Portugal itself. There is some evidence that Franco planned to invade both Portugal and Gibraltar, together with the Nazis. Portugal continued to export tungsten and other goods to both the Axis (partly via Switzerland) and Allied countries.
In 1945, Portugal had an extensive colonial Empire, including Cape Verde Islands, São Tomé e Principe, Angola (including Cabinda), Portuguese Guinea, and Mozambique in Africa; Goa, Damão (including Dadra and Nagar Haveli), and Diu in India; Macau in China; and Portuguese Timor in Southeast Asia. Salazar, a fierce integralist, was determined to retain control of these territories.
Post-war Portugal
Salazar wanted Portugal to be relevant internationally, and the country's overseas provinces made this possible, while Salazar himself refused to be overawed by the Americans. Portugal was the only non-democracy among the founding members of NATO in 1949, which reflected Portugal's role as an ally against communism during the Cold War. Portugal was offered help from the Marshall Plan because of the aid it gave to the Allies during the final stages of World War II, but aid was refused. Throughout the 1950s, Salazar maintained the same import substitution approach to economic policy that had ensured Portugal's neutral status during World War II. The rise of the "new technocrats" in the early 1960s, however, led to a new period of economic opening up, with Portugal as an attractive country for international investment. Industrial development and economic growth would continue all throughout the 1960s. During Salazar's tenure, Portugal also participated in the founding of OECD and EFTA. At the dawn of the 70's Portugal credibility was enough to grant membership of many international organizations.
From the forcible annexation of Portuguese colonies in India by the Indian Army (see Portuguese India) in 1961 until Salazar's death, the overseas provinces were a continual source of trouble and wealth for Portugal, especially during the Portuguese Colonial War. Portugal became increasingly isolated on the world stage as other European nations with African colonies gradually began granting them independence. In the 1960s, armed revolutionary movements and scattered guerrilla activity had reached Mozambique as well as Angola and Portuguese Guinea. Except in Portuguese Guinea, the Portuguese army and naval forces were able to effectively suppress most of these insurgencies through a well-planned counter-insurgency campaign using light infantry, militia, and special operations forces. However, Portugal was ostracized by most of the world on the grounds of its colonial policy, especially the newly independent African nations under Marxist rule such as Zambia. Salazar's opposition to de-colonization and gradual liberalization of press was a matter of disagreement with Franco in the 1960s.
Economic policies
Economically, the Salazar years were marked by immensely increased growth. From 1950 until Salazar's death, Portugal saw its GDP per capita rise at an average rate of 5.66% per year. This made it the fastest growing economy in Europe. Indeed, the Salazar era was marked by an economic program based on the policies of autarky and interventionism, which were popular in the 1930s as a response to the Great Depression. Financial stability was Salazar's highest priority. In order to balance the Portuguese budget and pay off external debts, the dictator instituted numerous taxes. In the meantime, Salazar adopted a policy of neutrality during World War II, taking advantage of this neutrality to simultaneously loan the Base das Lages in the Azores to the Allies and export military equipment and metals to the Axis powers.
Other
His reluctance to travel abroad, his increasing stubbornness against delivering the colonies to the Marxist movements endorsed by the African Unity Organization, his blind will to fight the so-called "winds of change" sponsored by the superpowers (USSR, USA), and his refusal to grasp the impossibility of his regime outliving him, marked the final years of his tenure. "Proudly alone" was the motto of his final decade. For Salazar, Portugal had been a multicultural, multiracial and pluricontinental nation since the XV Century, and if the country was to be dismembered by losing its overseas territories, that would spell the end for Portuguese independence. In geopolitical terms, no critical mass would then be available to guarantee self-sufficiency to the Portuguese State.
Salazar was a close friend of Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith: after Rhodesia proclaimed its UDI from Great Britain, Portugal - though not officially recognizing the new Rhodesian state - supported Rhodesia economically and militarily through the neighboring Portuguese colony of Mozambique until 1975, when FRELIMO took over Mozambique after negociations with the new Portuguese regime which had taken over after the Carnation Revolution. Ian Smith later wrote in his memoirs that had Salazar lasted longer than he did, Rhodesia would still be in existence today.
Death
In 1968, Salazar suffered a major stroke, caused by or causing his falling from a chair in his summer house, forcing President Américo Tomás to replace him with Marcelo Caetano on 27 September 1968. It is believed that to his dying day Salazar thought that he was still Prime Minister of Portugal, but some of his aides claim that he was aware of the situation and just played along[citation needed]. He died in Lisbon on 27 July 1970. Tens of thousands, possibly many more, paid their last respects at the funeral and the Requiem Mass and at the passage of the special train that carried the coffin to his hometown of Santa Comba Dão, where he was buried according to his wishes in his native soil, next to his ancestors and the modest farmers of the region, in a plain ordinary grave. As a symbolic display of his views of Portugal and the Portuguese, there is well known footage of several members of the "Mocidade Portuguesa", of both African and European ethnicity, paying homage at his funeral.
Post-recognition and honors
Salazar was nominated for the Radiotelevisão Portuguesa (RTP) contest Os Grandes Portugueses ('the Greatest Portuguese') by popular vote through email and SMS, which generated controversy among the current regime. On March 25, 2007, he won the contest, with 41% of the vote against nine other contenders. Many explanations were advanced but his charisma, seriousness and the effective economic growth during his years in office are considered the main reasons.
References
See also
External references
- George Wright, The Destruction of a Nation, ISBN 074531029X
- Franco Nogueira, Salazar'
- Hugh Kay, Salazar and Modern Portugal
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