Partido Republicano (Portugal)

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The Republican Party (Portuguese: Partido Republicano Português) was a Portuguese political party that, formed in 1876, advocated the abolition of the constitutional monarchy and the establishment of a republic.

The Republican Party had its social base and electorate particularly in the urban middle classes, among intellectuals and parts of the military, especially the Navy, but also among industrial workers and craftsmen.

Important republican theorists and party leaders until 1910

Basic political demands of the Republicans

The Republican Party based its political views on the writings of José Félix Henriques Nogueira and especially on the republican ideas in Spain and France . They called for the decentralization of political administration and advocated federal structures. The Republicans fought for extensive labor and social legislation, emphasized the right to strike and supported the cooperative movement . They advocated universal suffrage, freedom of the press and freedom of assembly, criticized compulsory military service and generally advocated the enforcement of civil rights and freedoms, especially in judiciary and educational policy. An initial orientation towards the model of the Swiss state structure gradually declined. One of the main features of their ideological views was an aggressive anti-clericalism that was particularly directed against the Jesuits, including hostility to religion. Within Portuguese republicanism, there has always been a strong left wing, orientated towards socialist ideas, which often came into conflict with the more bourgeois sectors of the party. An essential basis of all political thought of the Portuguese Republicans was a pronounced nationalism, which grew stronger over the years. With the English ultimatum on the colonial question of 1890, the defense of Portuguese colonialism became another key message of Portuguese republicanism.

History of the party

The proclamation of the federal republic in Spain on February 12, 1873 was also associated with a sustained upswing in the republican movement in Portugal. A series of mostly private meetings took place and on April 3, 1876, a first board of the Republican Party consisting of 33 members was elected. In July of the same year, a Republican electoral center (Centro Eleitoral Republicano) was built in Lisbon . Similar centers were founded in Coimbra and Porto in 1878 . In the elections on November 13, 1878 in Porto, José Rodrigues de Freitas was the first republican member of parliament to be elected with the support of progressives . He was also able to defend his mandate in the 1879 elections in Porto.

In 1880 and 1882, the Republicans succeeded in using the commemorations for Camões and Pombal as major nationalist manifestations against the constitutional monarchy.

The appearance of the first issue of the magazine O Século (The Century) under the direction of Sebastião Magalhães Lima on January 1, 1881 gave an important impetus to the entire republican movement. In the political disputes, leading republicans also repeatedly referred to ideals of liberalism in Portugal, which they did not see adequately respected by the traditional monarchist representatives of liberalism.

In the 80s and 90s of the 19th century, despite a number of obstacles in the electoral legislation, the Republicans always managed to send between 2 and 4 members (mostly elected in Lisbon) to the national parliament.

At a party congress that took place in Porto in January 1891, an impending split in the Republican Party was prevented. At the same time, a new party program was decided, which was first published on January 11, 1891. The republicans used the nationalist and anti-British mood among the population against the English ultimatum on the colonial question of 1890 for an anti-monarchist uprising in Porto, but suffered a defeat in the process. This led to a series of repression against the party. However, the government has not been able to contain their growing influence in Lisbon and Porto. Rather, in July 1894, an anti-government strategic alliance was concluded between the republicans and parts of the progressives with the Liberal Union (União Liberal) .

In March 1895 the 6th Party Congress of the Republican Party was dissolved by the police, but a day later a new party leadership was elected in a secret location with Eduardo de Abreu , Jacinto Nunes , Sebastião Magalhães Lima and Gomes da Silva .

With the transition of the well-known politician Bernardino Machado from the Regeneration Party to the Republican Party, a spectacular blow was achieved against the monarchist parties.

On September 16, 1900, the first issue of O Mundo (Die Welt) was published. The newspaper became an important and influential mouthpiece for the Republican and later the Democratic Party .

The politically and economically worsening crisis in the country led to a further division and thus a weakening of the political forces supporting the monarchy. The King tried to counteract this development by transferring dictatorial powers to Prime Minister João Franco . Increased press censorship and terrorist measures both against the anarchists and socialists and against the Republicans failed to defuse the situation. General elections were held 7 times between 1900 and 1910. Ten governments acted.

After the assassination of the king and heir to the throne in February 1908, the new monarch Manuel II dismissed João Franco as head of government and tried to master the crisis of the monarchy with a policy of compromise. But it was already too late. The Republican Party's power and influence grew rapidly in Portuguese political life. In November 1908 they won the elections to the city parliament of Lisbon and in November 1909 the local elections in 122 parishes. In April 1909, the 10th Congress of the party decided to instruct its board of directors to promote the revolutionary movement for the establishment of the republic.

On October 5, 1910, with the support of the secret organization Carbonária Portuguesa, which was allied with the Freemasons, and part of the military, the republic was proclaimed and a provisional government was formed under the presidency of Teófilo Braga. The government began swiftly to implement a number of the Republican Party's key demands. Great importance was attached to an anti-clerical secularization of society, which also included the drafting of a new constitution.

With the establishment of the First Republic , the Republican Party in principle became the sole ruling political force in Portugal - at the same time, disintegration and wing struggles began in the party. In the elections to the Constituent National Assembly in May 1911, in addition to 3 independents and 2 socialists, 229 republican members of the PRP were elected, but the final collapse of the traditional Partido Republicano Português was already evident in the presidential elections in September of the same year.

The history of the final split of the old Republican Party in the years 1910–1912 is described in the article Portuguese Republican Party or Partido Republicano Português.

See also

literature