Antonio de Oliveira Salazar

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António de Oliveira Salazar (1940)

Listen to António de Oliveira Salazar [ ɔtɔnju dɨ oliˈvɐjɾɐ sɐlɐˈza anhören ] ? / i (born April 28, 1889 in Vimieiro / Santa Comba Dão , † July 27, 1970 in Lisbon ) was Prime Minister from 1932 to 1968 and temporarily President of Portugal in 1951 . He was the leader of the authoritarian dictatorship of the so-called Estado Novo . Audio file / audio sample

Way to power

Salazar came from a humble background. His father had worked his way up from a farm worker to the tenant of a small farm. Salazar was to become a priest first. The Catholic Church , at that time oppressed by the secular state (since 1910 republic ) , recognized Salazar's economic and political talent and made it possible for him to study economics and finance at the traditional University of Coimbra . Salazar turned out to be one of the best students in these subjects.

Salazar taught as a professor of economics and economics at the University of Coimbra. In 1928 he was brought into the government by President António Oscar de Fragoso Carmona , who had replaced the first Portuguese republic with a military dictatorship , as finance minister . Salazar made complete freedom of action over state finances a condition for his entry into government. The military government under General Oscar Carmona gave Salazar the required powers. At parties , trade unions and political moods he therefore did not have to take any considerations. Salazar had been in power in Portugal since 1928 - he had established a kind of financial dictatorship.

Salazar succeeded through a rigid austerity program to balance the national budget and to settle all foreign debts. On July 5, 1932, Carmona appointed him Prime Minister . Salazar received his main support from those groups in society that were hostile to the republic but were also disappointed by the military government. For the military , the church , monarchists , the upper middle class and the aristocracy , Salazar was the better choice compared to the previous juntas .

State leader of the dictatorship

In 1933, in his role as Prime Minister, he gave Portugal a new constitution , on the basis of which he established a one-party system.

Salazar proclaimed the Estado Novo , the "New State", a conservative-authoritarian dictatorship. His position of power was based on economic stability and political repression . The press censorship introduced in 1926 prevented freedom of expression, the ban on strikes and restrictions on freedom of assembly prevented an effective opposition . Political parties were banned unless they broke up after the military coup. Dissidents were driven into exile, put in prisons, murdered or silenced by the secret police PIDE ( Polícia Internacional e de Defesa do Estado = International State Security Police).

In historical research, Salazarism is usually not referred to as pure fascism , but as a conservative-authoritarian dictatorship with clerical-fascist features. In 1936 Salazar established two typically fascist organizations (which remained in existence until 1974): the Legião Portuguesa , a paramilitary militia to protect the regime modeled on the German SA , and the Mocidade Portuguesa , a youth association modeled on the Hitler Youth . Yet Salazar always made a clear distinction between authoritarianism and totalitarianism . Totalitarian structures, even in their fascist form, were repugnant to him - he did not rely on mass mobilization and indoctrination of the population, but rather on oppression and "calming down". The Unity Party National Union ( União Nacional , UN), which he chaired, was more of an anti-party or a party substitute and never achieved the importance or dynamism of other fascist parties such as the NSDAP . Membership was not compulsory, and non-members could also hold state offices.

Salazar never made a secret of the fact that he admired and advocated the policies of the Italian leader Benito Mussolini. Especially in the years 1936 to 1939 (during the Spanish civil war ), a clear “fascization” of the Salazar dictatorship can be identified, which was gradually reversed after the Second World War.

During the Second World War , Salazar steered Portugal on a middle course. He supported the Spanish nationalists on a large scale with material and logistical aid during the civil war and tolerated the recruitment of numerous Portuguese volunteer fighters, but, like Franco , never sided with Germany . In 1939 he initiated an Iberian neutrality pact (also commonly known as the Iberian bloc ). He supported the Allies by leaving Lajes Field airport in the Azores as a military base from 1943 - after secret negotiations with George F. Kennan , among others . If he had sided with the Axis Powers , it would have meant war with Great Britain and thus threatened the Portuguese colonies .

With an extremely skilful policy of neutrality, Salazar was able to make concessions to the Allies and the Axis Powers without taking sides. So he left the German mining concessions for the mining of the war metal tungsten . Portugal was well paid for this accommodation. On the other hand, he left ports and airports in the Azores and Madeira to the British and later to the USA . Salazar had never made any move to join the radical anti-Semitism of the other right-wing dictatorships in Europe. Around 30,000 refugees were able to find refuge in Portugal, at least temporarily, including around 2,000 predominantly Jewish refugees through the courageous efforts of the Portuguese diplomat Aristides de Sousa Mendes , who, however, violated Salazar's instructions.

Colonial policy

In 1945 Portugal controlled Cape Verde , today's São Tomé and Príncipe , Angola , Guinea-Bissau , Cabinda and Mozambique in Africa , Diu, Daman and Goa in India , Macau in China and East Timor in Southeast Asia. Salazar held on to this claim to the colonies, as they meant prestige and economic stability. The colonies and the associated pride of being the third colonial power after Great Britain and France formed one of the foundations of his rule. However, Salazar has not visited a single colony during its forty years of government activity.

Only the country's large colonial possessions made it possible for Portugal - as Salazar wanted - to play an important international role. The country itself operated an ideologically based “proud isolationism” and remained a state isolated from the rest of Europe, over which the Western powers had little influence. In 1949 Portugal was a founding member of NATO - partly because of its geostrategic importance and its anti-communist stance . In 1955 Portugal joined the United Nations .

From the capture of the last Portuguese colonial possession in India by the troops of the Indian Union in 1961 until after Salazar's death, the African colonies in particular became a growing trouble spot for Portugal. The colonial wars that flared up from 1961 finally led to the end of the Salazar dictatorship. Leading military, above all General António de Spínola , pushed for an end to the fighting, because Spínola had recognized that the wars in Africa were not to be won.

End of rule

In 1968 Salazar suffered a cerebral haemorrhage . President Américo Tomás assumed that the 79-year-old would not live much longer and appointed Marcelo Caetano as his successor on September 27, 1968. As Salazar's condition improved, none of his old followers told him that he had a successor. Salazar called cabinet meetings. Until his death in July 1970, Salazar lived in his home in his native Santa Comba Dão. On April 25, 1974, his Estado Novo was swept away by the Carnation Revolution . The interim government ended the Portuguese colonial war ; the colonies became independent .

Although his government was a dictatorship, Salazar was still popular with parts of the Portuguese population decades after his death. The reasons for this were his incorruptibility, his materially modest conduct of office and his unpretentious demeanor. He even paid for business trips with his own money so as not to burden the state budget. The history of the Salazar regime was hardly dealt with after his death in Portugal. In 2007, Salazar was voted the most important Portuguese of all time by a clear margin in the program “ Os Grandes Portugueses ” (roughly comparable to “ Our Best ”). Salazar was buried in a simple family grave in the cemetery of his birthplace Vimieiro. He actually wanted to be buried anonymously.

Honors

Several cities in the colonies were renamed Vila Salazar .

literature

  • Harald Bodenschatz / Max Welch Guerra (ed.): Urban development under Salazar. Dictatorial modernization of the Portuguese empire 1926–1960. Berlin 2020, ISBN 978-3-86922-528-9 .
  • Kian-Harald Karimi: 'There is no discussion!' The order of the discourse in the New State. In: Henry Thorau (ed.): Portuguese literature. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1997, pp. 236-258.
  • Antonio Louçã: Nazi gold for Portugal: Hitler and Salazar. Holzhausen, Vienna 2002, ISBN 3-85493-060-7 .
  • Paul H. Lewis: Latin fascist elites. The Mussolini, Franco, and Salazar regimes. Westport, Conn. 2002.
  • Dimitris Michalopoulos: The “New State” in Portugal, Spain and Greece: Fascist in Style but not in Reality
  • António Costa Pinto: The Salazar "New State" and European fascism. EUI working papers in history 12, San Domenico (FI) 1991.
  • Filipe Ribeiro de Meneses: Salazar: A Political Biography. Enigma Books, New York 2010.
  • Jürgen Zimmerer: The best-governed state in Europe. Salazar and his “New Portugal” in the conservative occidental discourse of the early FRG. In: Portugal - Alemanha - Brasil. Actas do VI Encontro Luso - Alemão = Portugal - Alemanha - Portugal: 6th German-Portuguese working discussion, Volume 1 / Org. Orlando Grossegesse. Erwin Koller; Armando Malheiro da Silva. Minho, pp. 81-101.

Movie

  • Franco and Salazar - The Iberian Fascists. Documentation . Portugal 2004, directors: Joaquim Vieira, Fernanda Bizarro, dubbed version, ARTE F, first broadcast, 57 min.

Web links

Commons : António de Oliveira Salazar  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikiquote: António de Oliveira Salazar  - Quotes

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Biography (Portuguese)
  2. ↑ time.com October 31, 1969: Portugal: Shades of Salazar
  3. ↑ Information from the Portuguese Embassy in Berlin, September 2011
predecessor Office successor
António Óscar de Fragoso Carmona President of Portugal
1951 		Francisco Craveiro Lopes
Domingos da Costa Oliveira Prime Minister of Portugal
1932–1968 		Marcelo Caetano
personal data
SURNAME Salazar, Antonio de Oliveira
BRIEF DESCRIPTION President and Prime Minister of Portugal
DATE OF BIRTH April 28, 1889
PLACE OF BIRTH Santa Comba Dão
DATE OF DEATH July 27, 1970
Place of death Lisbon