The world needs a new Carnation Revolution in response to the inequalities that exist in society, said Portuguese Colonel Vasco Lourenço, one of the soldiers who led the uprising that meant the arrival of democracy in Portugal, which next Thursday will be 50 years old.

Lourenço was one of the main responsible for the military conspiracy behind the Carnation Revolution on April 25, 1974 and, although he is proud to have helped make Portuguese society fairer, he considered, in an interview with EFE, that part of that conquest has been lost.

“We had the ambition of a fairer society. And after April 25, in the following years, that was a fact. Portuguese society was much fairer, much less unequal. Unfortunately, in recent years, inequalities have been growing,” said the soldier.

The problem is global and can trigger a new revolt: “There will have to be a new Carnation Revolution. It is not possible for society in the world to be so unequal.”

Lourenço was the operational responsible for the uprising that brought down the dictatorship of António de Oliveira Salazar and returned power to the citizenry, although he had to live that day from the Azores archipelago because the regime moved him there the previous month.

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Half a century later, at the age of 83, he presides over the 25 de Abril Association, the entity that brings together the military who participated in a revolution that influenced the creation of many democratic states in the world, including neighboring Spain, which began its transition after the death of dictator Francisco Franco in 1975.

“The peaceful transition in Spain was only possible in the way it was done because there was April 25 in Portugal,” said the retired colonel.

But democratization did not stay in Spain and reached other corners of the globe, such as Greece – after Portugal demonstrated that “the military did not have to do only ‘pinochetadas” -, Brazil and other Latin American countries, Lourenço listed.

And it went further: the independence of the Portuguese colonies in Africa “made the fight against apartheid much easier” in South Africa.

In Portugal and Spain, despite being so close, the paths to reach democracy were very different and this former official considers that in the neighboring country there are still “wounds to heal” from the past.

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“In Spain, the civil war caused very conflicting situations. And then the cure of that war was not made (…) Here in Portugal, despite the fact that there was no violence, there was a military rupture that allowed to cure what had happened,” reasoned the colonel, who recalled that the Franco dictatorship was “much more violent.”

With the Carnation Revolution, “the wounds of the time of fascism were healed.” Half a century later, the country has joined the European boom of the far right.

The radical Chega party has 50 of the 230 deputies of the Parliament, the largest number of seats in the hands of the extreme right since the end of the Portuguese dictatorship.

“Chega has risen precisely because the democratic forces have shot themselves in the foot,” defended Lourenço, who regretted that “a large part of the politicians,” when they govern, prefers to serve their own interests than those of the people.

These behaviors “create fields for opportunists, so that populists make promises that they will not keep” and give wings to the far right, he said.

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Even so, Lourenço is “optimistic” and trusts that the “spirit of April” is still alive in Portugal.

That spirit was the one that led in 1974 a group of soldiers to overthrow a dictatorial regime implanted 48 years ago and later return power to the citizenry.

The coup was fast and effective and in less than 24 hours the dictatorship had fallen: “It was the best organized and best executed operation that the Armed Forces have done throughout their history in Portugal,” the colonel reflected.

Asked whether the Portugal he imagined 50 years ago resembled today’s, Lourenço replied cautiously: “Yes and no.”
Conquests that they dreamed of such as integration into the international community, peace or democracy, despite their flaws – “I prefer a bad and imperfect democracy to a ‘good’ dictatorship” – have been maintained to this day.

Social justice continues to be the ‘thorn’: “Poverty has increased. In that sense, I would like it to be better, but we are incredibly better,” he said.

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