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Fascism in Portugal

Salazar's Rise to Power

António de Oliveira Salazar

  • Member of the Catholic Center Party
  • Elected to Parliament in 1921, left after one session
  • May 28, 1926: coup d’état led by General Manuel Gomes da Costa ended unstable 1st Republic and began Estado Novo
  • May 30: José Mendes Cabeçadas became Prime Minister and President of the Republic
  • June 3: Salazar became Minister of Finance, resigned 16 days later (claimed he could not do his work because of disorder in the government)
  • April 26, 1928: Salazar returned to the position of Minister of Finance because the government was stabilized
  • July 5, 1932: Salazar appointed Prime Minister

  • 1889-1970
  • Economics professor and politician
  • Prime Minister of Portugal 1932-1968
  • Never President of the Republic, but was in effect dictator of Portugal
  • Founded and led Estado Novo (New State)
  • Estado Novo: fascist government that controlled Portugal from 1932 to 1974

Minorities Targeted during Salazar's Rule

Inimigos de Portugal

  • Due to Portugal's neutral stance, it did not have many external enemies.
  • Enemies of Portuguese fascism were communists, socialists, liberals, and anti-colonialists.
  • The Estado Novo was supported by conservative republicans, the conservative military, monarchists, and Catholics. Thus, political dissidents became primary targets.
  • Among these people were members of the Socialist Party, Communists, Anarchists, Liberals, any type of Marxist, and others.
  • Anyone against Salazar's regime was persecuted by the PIDE, the Polícia Internacional e de Defesa do Estado (International and State Defense Police).
  • The PIDE, originally known as the PVDE, was established in the same year as the Estado Novo and remained unabolished until the end of Marcelo Caetano's leadership in 1974.
  • The Tarrafal Camp held these opponents of the right-wing authoritarian regime.

Salazar's Message

  • Fascist Portugal supported the Catholic Church most strongly.
  • Throughout WWII, Portugal remained neutral, despite being a fascist country like many of those in the Axis powers.
  • Throughout the war, Portugal seemed to lean more toward whichever side was doing better.
  • Despite Portuguese neutrality, the Allies were allowed to establish military bases on the Azores due to the Treaty of Windsor (enacted in 1386 between England and Portugal).
  • Portugal and Spain, another neutral fascist country, had a Treaty of Friendship and Non-Aggression with each other.
  • Portugal was invited into the Axis powers but declined.
  • Portugal supplied major amounts of Wolfram (Tungsten) to Germany. Also supplied smaller amounts to Britain.

Amigos de Portugal

Terror Employed by the Dictatorship

Tarrafal Concentration Camp

  • Imprisonment was most commonly the fate of those persecuted by the PIDE - an estimated 30,000 people imprisoned during the 1940s.
  • Unlike more extreme Fascist regimes, very rarely were political opponents murdered. A notable exception of this was with the murder of General Humberto Delgado in 1965.
  • While few were killed (less than 500 political murders in metropolitan Portugal over the course of 4 decades) torture was often used in prisons.
  • The PIDE used positional torture as well as sleep deprivation as methods of torture.
  • By the early 1960s, the most common form of positional torture was "statue torture" (estatua) in which prisoners were made to stand for hours.
  • "I suffered the statue... on falling asleep, I would be woken at once or within a few minutes by having pins stuck in me or by shaking, or by sounds of knocking or tapping." -prisoner from Portugal
  • There are reports of electrotorture having been being used in 1966 as well.
  • The political police were capable of extending prison terms limitlessly.
  • The military censored the press and an anticommunist paramilitary organization known as the Portuguese Legion (Legião Portuguesa) had its own information service.
  • Repression was said to be limited; Salazar's regime has been described as "a fascism devoid of a fascist movement".

Effects of Fascism

After

During

-National holiday- Freedom Day on April 25

-After fascism ended, the military was taken back and weakened

-By the ending of the fascist dictatorship, Portugal returned back to democratic elections like it had before fascism, but there was still some military effect left on the government

-Short term effects of the Carnation Revolution, but people believed it was worth it to get back their civil rights and political rights which were taken away from fascism

-received a lot of criticism during and afterwards and provided uncertainty in politics

-Estado Novo initially provided financial stability and economic growth

-Colonies were formed for Estado Novo

-Salazar was dependent on the secret police (PVDE, then the PIDE): job was to defend national security, repress civil liberties and political freedoms, and to suppress political opponents so that they would retain their power and to stop communist influence before it spread

-Salazar made prison camps for enemies of the Estado Novo after the Spanish Civil War began where Anarchists and Communists, for example, were held or had killed

-After a while people started to criticize the fascist government and wanted to put an end to it once they realized what a detriment to Portugal it had become

Salazar's Message

  • Leader in Centre Académico da Democracia Crista (CADC), a movement that defended Catholic interests
  • Created corporate republic based on strong state
  • Believed blue shirts were inspired by foreign models (Rolao Preto and National Syndicalists)
  • Feared victory of revolutionary left socialists
  • With the New State, Salazar and his collaborators abolished political parties and trade unions and implemented total censorship
  • Supported Franco and the Spanish Civil War
  • Although considered fascist movement, it bore little resemblance to Italian fascism and German national socialism
  • Estado Novo founded movement with no independent life of its own
  • Declared Portugal a corporative and unitary republic
  • Promised end of capitalist exploitation - all could work together for national good
  • Under the National Labor Statute, strikes and lock-outs were forbidden
  • Penalties were imprisonment and captivity in Tarrafal concentration camp for Anarchists, Communists, Socialists, liberals, etc.
  • Government and secret Police (PIDE) repressed civil liberties and political freedoms
  • Salazar and the National Union forbade Marxist parties and Communism
  • Followers: Catholics, Nationalists, Fascists, Conservatives
  • God is ultimate source of political power, common good is source of political legitimacy
  • Corporatist institutions blocked individual human rights

Portuguese Nationalists

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