LISBON, April 22, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Portugal on Thursday marks 50 years

since the Carnation Revolution, a military coup that ended its colonial wars
in Africa and ushered in a democracy that has recently had a brush with the
far right.

On April 25, 1974, the oldest authoritarian regime in Western Europe at the
time fell within a matter of hours, virtually without bloodshed, thanks to an
uprising by non-commissioned officers that was immediately backed by the
public.

The red carnations placed in the muzzles of the rifles carried by young
soldiers who became the heroic liberators of a people languishing under a
dictatorship that began in 1926 quickly became the dominant image of this
moment of political, economic and social upheaval.

The coup would open the way for the country's first free elections based on
universal suffrage on April 25, 1975, as well as the independence of
Portugal's remaining African colonies: Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau and
Cape Verde.

"The colonial wars had a fundamental influence in opening our eyes to the
situation in Portugal," retired colonel Vasco Lourenco told AFP, one of the
officers who took part in the coup and now heads the April 25 Association
which represents putschist soldiers like him.

- 'Coup d'etat turned revolution' -

The "immediate and overwhelming" support of the public was very encouraging
for "those of us who really wanted radical change, real freedom and
democracy", he said.

For historian Maria Inacia Rezola, who is running the anniversary
celebrations which will include hundreds of commemorative events, April 25
"was technically a coup d'etat which, on the same day, was transformed into a
revolution".

On Thursday, some of the 5,000 or so soldiers who were part of the putsch
will parade through central Lisbon in some 15 restored military vehicles that
were used on the day.

As it does every year, parliament will hold a special commemorative session
and there will be a traditional parade but this year, the celebrations will
also be joined by the heads of the African states that were once Portuguese
colonies.

Some believed Portugal's authoritarian past would offer it some protection
from the rise of the far right as seen elsewhere in Europe, but the extremist
Chega party made a breakthrough in last month's general election.

Set up in 2019, it won 18 percent of the vote, consolidating its position as
Portugal's third-largest political force.

Although its founder and leader Andre Ventura has criticised the dictatorship
years, the party has become a refuge for some nostalgic supporters of the
former authoritarian regime.

- 'Don't know much about history' -

"Within the Portuguese right, there are many people who don't have a totally
negative view of Salazar and his regime," said Italian researcher Riccardo
Marchi, an expert in the far right at the University Institute of Lisbon
(ISCTE).

Portugal's dictatorship years began in 1926 after which the regime was
consolidated under prime minister Antonio de Oliveira Salazar and continued
from 1968 by his successor Marcelo Caetano.

Rita Rato, director of Lisbon's Resistance and Freedom Museum, which is set
up in a former jail where anti-fascist activists were tortured, says most
Portuguese people "don't know much about their past".

"What's happening now makes it even more clear how important it is for young
people to know the recent history of our country," said Rato, a former
Communist lawmaker.

According to a survey published on Friday, half of the respondents said the
former regime had more negative aspects than positive, but a fifth said the
opposite.

And about two-thirds -- or 65 percent -- said the Carnation Revolution was
the most important event in Portugal's history, more than the end of its
monarchy in 1910 or its 1986 accession to what would become the European
Union.

Until 1974, Portugal was "a poor, backwards, illiterate country that was
isolated from the rest of the world", said historian Rezola.

But the events of April 1974 enabled it "to modernise at every level", she
added.