António de Oliveira Salazar
António de Oliveira Salazar[a] GCTE GCSE GColIH GCIC (/ˌsæləˈzɑːr/, US also /ˌsɑːl-/, Portuguese: [ɐ̃ˈtɔni.u ðɨ ɔliˈvɐjɾɐ sɐlɐˈzaɾ]; 28 April 1889 – 27 July 1970) was a Portuguese statesman, academic, and economist who served as Prime Minister of Portugal from 1932 to 1968. Having come to power under the Ditadura Nacional ("National Dictatorship"), he reframed the regime as the corporatist Estado Novo ("New State"), with himself as a dictator. The regime he created lasted until 1974, making it one of the longest-lived authoritarian regimes in Europe.
António de Oliveira Salazar
Himself
Himself
Óscar Carmona
Francisco Craveiro Lopes
Himself
Óscar Carmona
Óscar Carmona
Himself
Manuel Ortins de Bettencourt
Manuel Ortins de Bettencourt
Himself
Manuel Ortins de Bettencourt
Manuel Ortins de Bettencourt
Himself
José Caeiro da Mata
Himself
Abílio Passos e Sousa
Himself
António Lopes Mateus
Daniel Rodrigues de Sousa
Domingos Oliveira
Eduardo Marques
Eduardo Marques
Domingos Oliveira
Eduardo Marques
Eduardo Marques
- José Vicente de Freitas
- Artur Ivens Ferraz
- Domingos Oliveira
- Himself
José Vicente de Freitas
José Mendes Cabeçadas
Filomeno da Câmara de Melo Cabral
Guimarães
28 April 1889
Vimieiro, Santa Comba Dão, Portugal
27 July 1970 (aged 81)
Estrela, Lisbon, Portugal
National Union (1930–1970)
Portuguese Catholic Centre (1919–1930)
1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
University of Coimbra (PhD)
Economics professor
A political economy professor at the University of Coimbra, Salazar entered public life as finance minister with the support of President Óscar Carmona after the 28 May 1926 coup d'état. The military of 1926 saw themselves as the guardians of the nation in the wake of the instability and perceived failure of the First Republic, but they had no idea how to address the critical challenges of the hour.[1] Within one year, armed with special powers, Salazar balanced the budget and stabilised Portugal's currency. Salazar produced the first of many budgetary surpluses.[2] He promoted civilian administration in the authoritarian regime when the politics of more and more countries were becoming militarised.[1] Salazar's aim was the de-politicisation of society, rather than the mobilisation of the populace.[1] However, Portugal remained largely underdeveloped, its population relatively poor and with low education attainment when compared to the rest of Europe.[3]
Opposed to communism, socialism, syndicalism and liberalism, Salazar's rule was conservative, corporatist and nationalist in nature; it was also capitalist to some extent although in a very conditioned way until the beginning of the final stage of his rule, in the 1960s.[4] Salazar distanced himself from fascism and Nazism, which he described as a "pagan Caesarism" that did not recognise legal, religious or moral limits.[5] Throughout his life Salazar avoided populist rhetoric.[6] He was generally opposed to the concept of political parties when, in 1930, he created the National Union. Salazar described and promoted the party as a "non-party",[7] and announced that the National Union would be the antithesis of a political party.[7] He promoted Catholicism but argued that the role of the Church was social, not political, and negotiated the Concordat of 1940 that kept the church at arm's length. One of the mottos of the Salazar regime was Deus, Pátria e Família ("God, Fatherland and Family"), although he never turned Portugal into a confessional state.[8][9]
With the Estado Novo enabling him to exercise vast political powers, Salazar used censorship and the PIDE secret police to quell opposition. One opposition leader, Humberto Delgado, who openly challenged Salazar's regime in the 1958 presidential election, was first exiled and then killed by Salazar's secret police. Salazar supported Francisco Franco in the Spanish Civil War and played a key role in keeping Portugal and Spain neutral during World War II while still providing aid and assistance to the Allies.[10][11][12] Despite being a dictatorship, Portugal under his rule took part in the founding of some international organisations. The country was one of the 12 founding members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1949, joined the European Payments Union in 1950 and was one of the founding members of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) in 1960; it was also a founding member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in 1961. Under Salazar's rule, Portugal also joined the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade in 1961 and began the Portuguese Colonial War. The doctrine of pluricontinentalism was the basis of Salazar's territorial policy, a conception of the Portuguese Empire as a unified state that spanned multiple continents. After Salazar fell into a coma in 1968, President Américo Tomás dismissed him from the position of prime minister.[13]
The Estado Novo collapsed during the Carnation Revolution of 1974, four years after Salazar's death. In recent decades, "new sources and methods are being employed by Portuguese historians in an attempt to come to grips with the dictatorship which lasted forty-eight years."[14]
Background[edit]
Family[edit]
Salazar was born in Vimieiro, near Santa Comba Dão (Viseu District), to a family of modest income on 28 April 1889.[15] His father, a small landowner, had started as an agricultural labourer and became the manager for the Perestrelos, a wealthy family of rural landowners of the region of Santa Comba Dão who possessed lands and other assets scattered between Viseu and Coimbra.[16]
Personal life[edit]
Salazar never married; he had several affairs with women, no known descendents.
Salazar's image in public opinion was of a man entirely dedicated to the nation, almost a monk, far removed from feminine temptations, and censorship maintained this image. However, this is not true. Salazar had several love affairs, although he was afraid of falling in love. One of his seminary colleagues commented: "He never says the words that people expect, he doesn't give in to impulses, as soon as he has given something from his heart, he hastens to take it back."[153]
The first woman in his life was Felismina de Oliveira, a friend of his sister. She was a young woman from a modest background, who accompanied her on Saturday visits to Salazar at the seminary. Opposition from Felismina's family and Salazar's religious career put an end to the relationship.[153] However, in 1910 Salazar left the seminary and entered the University of Coimbra; he never intended to be a priest.[154]
In Coimbra he had an affair with the pianist Glória Castanheira, and then with her niece, Maria Laura Campos, married, whom he met several times in the Hotel Borges, in Lisbon, between 1931 and 1932, even after she had married for the second time. The affair ended when Laura moved to Seville with her husband. Also at the hotel Borges, Salazar met Mercedes de Castro, a rich daughter of a diplomat. He also had a relationship with Maria Emilia Vieira, a young woman who, before meeting the dictator, had already enjoyed bohemian adventures in Paris as an astrologer and a dancer.[153]
His last affair, the strongest and most lasting, seems to have been the one he had with Christine Garnier, a French journalist and writer, whom he called "the fragrant disorder". The latter, also married, had come to Portugal in 1961 with the idea of writing a book about Salazar. He invited her to come to Portugal on vacation, to Santa Comba Dão; she was amazed by the modesty of his house. Christine became his favorite, and from then on she made frequent trips between Portugal and France. Salazar abandoned his usual avarice for a while and bought her expensive gifts. The book was written: Férias com Salazar, a bestseller.[153][155] In Paris, Christine's husband later found Salazar's letters to his wife, and eventually asked for a divorce.[154]
Several historians and observers point to the probable platonic love of his virgin governess, Maria de Jesus Caetano Freire, for him. She had followed him from Coimbra, where she was already serving him, to Lisbon in 1928. She was a hard and strong woman, rigid, vengeful, with a "canine dedication" to the dictator—"an important character", he said. The governess was jealous of the attention he gave to the two girls whom he received at São Bento and who belonged to her family. Maria da Conceição Rita, one of the children, said that Salazar was incapable of going to bed without stopping by her room; he was also the one who played with them and told them stories. Salazar, seen by the world as a cold and distant man who rarely smiled, was nevertheless affectionate and concerned about those close to him.[156]