Crowd of military and civilian personnel in Rossio during the crisis
The day that ended the revolutionary period was 50 years ago. “It is “commemorable if it is what happened and not the falsification that is passed around as history.”
On the verge of a civil war, after the Hot Summer of 1975 — a period marked by enormous tensions between left and right — Portugal experienced a climate of great tension political, military and ideological that year, a year and a half after the Revolution of April 25, 1974, overthrew the Estado Novo.
The direction of the revolution and democracy was increasingly questioned, as the Ongoing Revolutionary Process (PREC) maintained a great weight in power. On the one hand, sectors of the extreme left maintained a strong presence in some military units and popular movements. Othello Saraiva de Carvalhoat the head of COPCON (Continental Operational Command), saw his space of influence shrinking and sought to reinforce “popular power”.
Armed left-wing groups alarmed the moderate and conservative sectors, but on this side the “military right” was also growing, which feared a communist-inspired revolution.
Among the central figures of those who feared a path of radicalization similar to that of other socialist regimes were General Ramalho Eanes e Jaime Nevescommander of the Amadora Commando Regiment. It was from this unit that a counter-coup was prepared to stop the uprising of military forces aligned with the extreme left, which had in the meantime occupied strategic points in the Lisbon area.
In politics, Mário Soares accused the communists of wanting to “control the political process”; right-wing parties wanted to ban the PCP.
A climate of constant provocations between left and right even involved a two-day siege (12 and 13 November) to the Constituent Assembly.
Vasco Lourenço replaces Otelo in command of the Lisbon Military Region a week later, to control the military, which sparked a revolt within the Armed Forces. He is the one who identifies “” for the two extremes, in the MFA and even in the Group of Nine of which he was part.
November 25, 1975 was the day that paratroopers with links to the far left occupied four Air Force bases and the Operational Command in Monsanto. The then President of the Republic, General Francisco Costa Gomes decreed the state of siegeand the Commandos advanced on the revolted units, avoiding a civil war, putting an end to the PREC and paving the way for strengthening the authority of civil power, clarifying the role of the Armed Forces and creating the necessary framework for the consolidation of parliamentary democracy.
A Navy and the Group of Nineled by Melo Antunes, played what is considered a decisive role in refusing a civil war and defending a plural democracy with the inclusion of the PCP.
The high naval hierarchy gives the Head of State the necessary security to control the process, by ensuring that the Chief of Staff of the Navy responds to the President of the Republic. When tension rises at the Alfeite base, with the entry of civilians from the Lisnave shipyards, Martins Guerreiro and Rosa Coutinho travel to the site to prevent the protests from taking on greater dimensions. With the support of the Commandos, the Group of Nine, made up of members of the Revolutionary Council such as Vasco Lourenço and Costa Neves, contained the revolt.
The PCP reassessed the situation and, around 11pm on November 25th, gave orders for the militants to leave the streets. He neither emerges victorious nor defeated, and ensures that he remains within the democratic system. The paratroopers ended up surrendering on November 28, 1975. The navy did not allow a civil war — “it preferred to lose politically”.
“Many times, in the Council of the Revolution, I, the [Almada] Contreiras and Rosa Coutinho said that we did not want a civil war, that we would rather lose politically than lead the country into a civil war. Early in the morning, when we analyzed the 25th of November, we concluded that we were not involved in military action nor would we allow a confrontation”, recalls Admiral Martins Guerreiro, in an interview with 2023.
Why so much controversy?
Historically, the 25th of November is presented as a moment with two important simultaneous movements: the PCP retreat in the face of the military extreme left and the containment of sectors of the extreme right who wanted a “muscular democracy” and the illegalization of communists.
“If on November 25th we managed to stop left-wing adventurism and the ambitions of scientific socialism, we also managed to stop the extreme right’s attempt to return to April 24th, and the right’s attempt to implement a muscular democracy”, he recalls in Memoirs of an April Captain, dedicated to the 25th of November, Vasco Lourençocaptain of April, protagonist of 25 de Novembro and very critical of the current commission, which he considers a “façade”.
The historian José Pacheco Pereira agrees, “without a doubt”, with today’s celebrations, but with one condition: it is “commemorable if it is what happened and not the falsification that goes around as history.”
“Do you want to do it? Very well, as long as the ‘heroes’ are Costa Gomes, Melo Antunes, Ramalho Eanes, Vasco Lourenço, the Group of Nine, Mário Soares, the PS, and not just Jaime Neves, but also. Let’s talk about the two coups, the one in 25 by the leftist wing of the Armed Forces, and the one in 26 with the attempt to illegalize the PCP.”, points out the historian in the newspaper Público.
“If on November 26th the PCP were illegalized, we would also have a conflict close to a civil war, which, I repeat, would be equally destructive to democracy. That is what the military action led by the President of the Republic [Costa Gomes]with his effective chain of command, prevented it, and that is what men like Melo Antunes stopped when defending plural democracy and the inclusion of communists in the system. Do you want to pay homage to November 25th? These are the men to be honored, and the radical right wants to exclude them”, points out Pacheco Pereira.
