Partido Progressista (Portugal)
The Progressive Party ( Portuguese Partido Progressista ) was one of the two major political parties during the constitutional phase of the Portuguese monarchy. It was founded in 1876 as a union of the Historical Party with the Reformist Party and stood in the tradition of the liberal Setembrists . The party thus united all the liberal forces that did not consider themselves conservative.
By today's standards, they could be described as left-liberal-progressive. The progressives demanded, among other things, a constitutional reform, the extension of the right to vote to other voters, decentralization of the administration and a reorganization of the financial administration and the judiciary. Their most important opponent was the regeneration party .
The party provided the Portuguese head of government four times in 1879–1881, 1886–1890, 1897–1900 and 1904–1906. The main leaders of the party were Anselmo José Braamcamp and José Luciano de Castro . In 1909, already in the final phase of the Portuguese monarchy , the party provided four ministers. After the fall of the monarchy in 1910, the party no longer played a role in the first Portuguese republic .
prehistory
After their victory over the supporters of absolute monarchy ( absolutism ) in the so-called Miguelistenkrieg , the proponents of a constitutional monarchy (called “Liberals” in Portugal) quickly split into a conservative ( Cartist ) and a left-liberal (Setembrist) wing. From these movements, the two major parties that were to shape Portuguese domestic politics during the constitutional era, the Regeneration Party on the conservative and the Historical Party on the left-liberal side of the party spectrum, developed. Since Peter V took over government in 1855, the system of so-called "rotativism" developed in Portugal. Representatives of both major parties took turns in the government, making sure that both parties ruled for about the same time. As soon as a party was no longer able to exercise the government, it gave its mandate back to the monarch, who then appointed a head of government from the opposition. Only then did the monarch dissolve parliament, so that it was ensured that the party that had just assumed government responsibility also got a parliamentary majority, which was ensured by manipulating the elections if necessary (which was not difficult, given the fact that only one percent of the population was entitled to vote).
From 1865 to 1868 this system was interrupted for the first time by a coalition of the two major parties led by the Regeneration Party (so-called Governo da fusão ). Within the Historical Party there was some resistance to the grand coalition, which eventually led to the Margrave of Sá da Bandeira and his supporters leaving the party in order to found their own party, the Reformist Party. The reformists were by and large only a support association for Sá da Bandeira, so after his death in 1876 they reunited with the Historical Party. From this union the Progressive Party was born.
From the founding of the party to the death of Braamcamps
The Progressive Party took over from its predecessors, the Historical and Reformist Parties, whose place in the system of "Rotativism", alternated with the Regeneration Party in government responsibility.
Since 1861, the Regeneration Party had been under the influence of the conservative politician António Maria de Fontes Pereira de Melo , who was to shape Portuguese politics during his first reign from 1871 to 1878. The Historical Party, under its leader Braamcamp, and from 1876 the Progressive Party, which was also led by Braamcamp, became a rallying movement against the opponents of Fonte de Melo. There was even a place in the party for supporters of Republican ideas. In 1879, King Ludwig I reappointed Fontes de Melo as head of government, which provoked angry protests from the progressives. In the same year, Fonte's second government overturned a scandal and the progressives came to power for the first time with Braamcamp as prime minister. They promised a government of "morality and freedom" (moraldade e liberdade). The party won the elections in 1879.
Fontes de Melo, who became opposition leader and president of the upper house, was in uncompromising opposition to the progressive government. In 1881 he finally succeeded in overthrowing the Braamcamp government and taking over the government again. Braamcamp became opposition leader, but died in 1885 before he succeeded in regaining government responsibility.
After death Braamcamps
After Braamcamp's death, José Luciano de Castro took over the office of party leader of the progressives and opposition leaders. When Fontes de Melo had to resign due to a tax dispute in 1886, Luciano de Castro became Prime Minister for the first time. During the so-called colonial crisis, which involved a dispute between Great Britain and Portugal over competing claims in southern Africa, de Castro lost his office in 1890 to António de Serpa Pimentel , who had taken over the leadership of the Regeneration Party from the late Fontes de Melo .
In the period that followed, the country's political situation deteriorated increasingly. Major economic problems led to the national bankruptcy (1891), the domestic political situation was marked by a strong increase in republican forces. The king tried non-partisan governments from 1890 to 1893, but returned to the traditional system in 1893 and reappointed a politician from the Regeneration Party, Ernesto Rodolfo Hintze Ribeiro , as prime minister. During this period the Progressive Party lost a number of elections, and in the elections of 1894 its parliamentary representation fell to only eleven MPs.
This changed when Luciano de Castro became Prime Minister for the second time in 1897. The progressives won the elections of 1897 and 1899. In 1901 there was a split within the Regeneration Party, João Franco left the party with his supporters to found the Liberal Regeneration Party . When the Progressives were in opposition in 1906 and Hintze Ribeiro ruled again from the Regeneration Party, the Progressive Party allied itself with the Liberal Regeneration Party in the Liberal Concentration (concentração liberal). The progressives initially supported João Franco, who came to power from 1906. But when the latter increasingly abandoned his initially liberal policy towards the Republicans and pursued an increasingly authoritarian policy, they withdrew their support in 1907. In the elections of April 1908, shortly after the assassination of King Charles I , they were able to record another great success and won 59 of the 157 seats in parliament. The new King Manuel II appointed non-partisan governments from 1908 to 1910, in which the Progressive Party always provided several ministers. Luciano de Castro in particular had a great influence in the final phase of the monarchy and became a kind of “kingmaker”, to whom the appointment of the governments of Ferreira do Amaral , Campos Henriques and de Sousa Teles was essentially owed.
After the end of the monarchy in 1910, the party no longer exercised any influence in Portuguese domestic politics. A number of its members joined the Republican Party (PRP) .