Partido Republicano Evolucionista
The Evolutionist Party or Evolutionist Republican Party (PRE) (Portuguese: Partido Republicano Evolucionista or Partido Evolucionista) was a political party at the time of the First Republic in Portugal .
It emerged on February 24, 1912 as a result of a lengthy process of splitting up the traditional Portuguese Republican Party (PRP). The evolutionists represented liberal center-right positions and differed in this from the left-wing Republican Democratic Party, which also emerged from the old PRP, and from the more conservative Unionists . The undisputed leader of the evolutionists was António José de Almeida , one of the most eloquent speakers of the old Republican Party. The Evolutionist Party had its most influential press organ in the daily newspaper República .
After years in the opposition, António José de Almeida led the evolutionists to the União Sagrada (Holy Unity) with the ruling Democratic Party in the spring of 1916 in order to enter the war on the side of England and the Entente, following the French example with a united government. In this government Almeida took over the presidency (prime minister) of the cabinet. In April 1917 the evolutionists left the government but continued to support it.
The dictatorship established in December 1917 under Sidónio Pais consistently fought the Evolutionist Party, which many of its members and leaders paid with exile or imprisonment. The evolutionists also took part in the suppression of the monarchist revolts and civil war-like unrest in January and February 1919. In August 1919, its leader António José de Almeida was elected 6th President of the First Republic, but had to forego the party leadership. He was the only President of the First Republic to complete his term in 1923.
In October 1919, evolutionists and unionists united in a new party of the non-monarchist right, the Liberal Republican Party (Partido Liberal Republicano (PLR)), primarily to break the dominance of the Democratic Party in the political life of the First Republic. One sector of the party that did not go along with this step founded the short-lived People's Party (Partido Popular).
literature
- António Henrique de Oliveira Marques : History of Portugal and the Portuguese Empire (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 385). Translated from the Portuguese by Michael von Killisch-Horn. Kröner, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-520-38501-5 , here: The First Republic, p. 493 ff.