To mark the 40th anniversary of Portugal’s Carnation Revolution, the old chaimite tank decorated with peace signs has once again trundled along the Avenida da Liberdade. People walked the streets holding carnations and singing the verses of Grândola vila morena, the song by Zeca Afonso that has become the symbol of the Portuguese revolution.
The celebrations commemorate the day when mid-ranking officers of the Armed Forces Movement toppled the Estado Novo, the 50-year-old dictatorship of António Salazar and Marcelo Caetano and put an end to 13 years of colonial war in Africa. And for the third time, the protagonists of that revolution will not show up.
This is the third year in a row that the surviving members of the AFM are boycotting the commemorations in protest at the government and its policies. Once again, Major Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho, the old mastermind of the revolution, has publicly said that Portugal “needs a new AFM and a new 25th of April”.
They may be isolated, but his declarations still sound rather scary. The armed forces have already played a significant political role throughout recent Portuguese history.
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Antonio Peciccia
Researcher in International History at University of Salento
