António de Oliveira Salazar

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António de Oliveira Salazar is the most significant leader of modern Portugal who served as the Prime Minister between 1932 to 1968. His leadership brought coherency to Portugal after the turbulent times after the disposition of the royal family but as with many long established rulers, relied heavily on fear and persecution towards the end of his rule to maintain order. This right-wing government ultimately ended with the carnation revolution of 1974. The Portuguese as a nation generally consider the rule Salazar as a difficult period for the country with many of the social problems that plague Portugal today being traced back to the failed regime.

 

Through António de Oliveira Salazar’s Estado Novo (New State) ruled during an era of communism he lead a religious conservative and nationalistic government that was bitterly against communism, socialism and any form of liberalism. Salazar's authoritarian state policies led to economic, political and social stagnation which in turn forced emigration of the most able. The Estado Novo was funded by the wealth and trade from the African colonies and hundreds of Portuguese soldiers were killed while the government fought against independence.

António Salazar was born in Vimieiro, near Santa Comba Dão in central Portugal. António Salazar’s father was a modest landowner who had begun as an agricultural labourer and worked his way up to become a farm manager of a wealthy land owner. Salazar’s family were far from rich but earned enough to fund a good education, initially he studied at the Viseu Seminary between 1900 through to 1914. At the end of state education António considered becoming a priest but was convinced to study law at the prestigious Coimbra University.

 

These strong religious convictions drove Salazar into politics, as during the early stages of the revolution and the Portuguese First Republic were heavily anticlerical and charged the powerful religious orders with the failings of the country. Salazar in response started to write for Catholic newspapers and organise protests that supported the interests of the church and its followers.

 

The Portuguese First Republic (1910-1926) was a turbulent time for Portugal with multiple short lived governments, vying leaders with opposed views. In this era Salazar was asked to join the government of Sidónio Pais whose dictatorship controlled Portugal for a single year in 1917 but he declined. Salazar officially entered the Portuguese world of politics with his membership to the Catholic Centre Party for which he was elected to Parliament but only stayed for one year’s session.He taught political economy at the University of Coimbra. António Salazar became the 81st Finance Minister on 26 April 1928, after the Ditadura Nacional was consolidated, paving the way for him to be appointed the 101st Prime Minister in 1932. He remained Finance Minister until 1940, when World War II consumed his time.

António Salazar rise to power is due to the image he was able to build as an honest and effective Finance Minister, President Carmona's strong support, and political positioning. The authoritarian government consisted of a right-wing coalition, and Salazar was able to co-opt the moderates of each political current while fighting the extremists, using censorship and repression. The conservative Catholics were his earliest and most loyal supporters. Never a true monarchist, Salazar nevertheless gained most of the monarchists' support, as the exiled deposed king was given a state funeral at the time of his death. They were given enough symbolic concessions to win over the moderates, and the rest were repressed by the political police.

 

António Salazar also supported Francisco Franco and the Nationalists in their fight against the left-wing groups of the Spanish Republic. The Nationalists lacked ports early on, and Salazar's Portugal helped receive armaments shipments from abroad - including ammunition early on when certain Nationalist forces were virtually out. Because of this, "the Nationalists referred to Lisbon as 'the port of Castile.'” In 1933, António Salazar introduced a new constitution which gave him wide powers, establishing an anti-parliamentarian and authoritarian government that would last four decades. Salazar was able to stay in power because the political structure was heavily rigged in favour of regime candidates.

Salazar's regime was rigidly authoritarian. He based his political philosophy around a close interpretation of Catholic social doctrine. The economic system, known as corporatism, which was supposed to prevent class struggle and supremacy of economics. Salazar himself banned Portugal's National Syndicalists, a more true Fascist 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. At the time many European countries feared the destructive potential of communism. Salazar not only forbade Marxist parties, but also revolutionary fascist-syndicalist parties. Although Portugal had a high level of illiteracy, Salazar regime didn't consider education a high priority and for many years didn't spend much on it, beyond granting basic education to all citizens.

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