Podcast
In this episode, Henrique Monteiro and Lourenço Pereira Coutinho talk about the context in which the first democratic elections were held in Portugal, which took place on April 25, 1975, of which they spend these days 50 years. Listen here the podcast the story is repeated
The elections for the Constituent Assembly were initially scheduled for April 12, 1975. However, the events of March 11 justified their postponement for 12 days, and some extremist sectors even complained their postponement “Sine Die”. At the time it was worth the decisive intervention of the President of the Republic, General Costa Gomes, who was in favor of conducting elections, by the way, as it was in the MFA program, and was then confirmed by the national salvation board.
The election campaign began on April 2, 1975 in a complex and political radicalization environment. Days later, on 11 April, the first MFA-PARTIDS pact was signed, which guaranteed a central political role in the future constitutional order to the agencies of the MFA recently instituted: the Council of Revolution and the MFA Assembly. The elections for the constituent thus realized in a context of tension between two legitimacy: democratic and revolutionary. Despite these conditions, they took place in an exemplary way and constituted a decisive step in the process of building democracy in Portugal.
A relaxed dialogue around the story, its greatest characters and events. ‘The story is repeated’ is not a class, but wants to arouse curiosity for the past and build bridges with the present. Every week Henrique Monteiro and Lourenço Pereira Coutinho start from a point that can lead to many others … So good conversations. Listen here other episodes:
