P ortuguese letter
After Spinola
__John Vincent-Smith Lisbon EverYthing is remarkably calm. Most people are inclined to shrug off the departure of re'residsuitent Spinola as a delayed but inevitable _ of his reluctant appointment of the 'ornmitted reformer Brigadier Vasco Gon;_caives as prime minister in early July. There are uldeed many who feel that the General's F°sItion would have been much stronger if he Jd resigned then. Brigadier Goncalves was one the main ideologists of the Armed Forces ‘wicivement which prepared the revolution of di‘413rii 25, and his repeated affirmations that the d Wernent's programme for the rapid reintrofon of democracy into Portugal would be 1,7:1fullY carried out have often been inter;.e.i-ed as a veiled challenge to the gradualist more authoritarian approach of General s',sPainola. When the trial of strength over the ''Atent majority's' demonstration arriired, the 'med Forces Movement proved on the whole ,,Ita:Ire faithful to the prime minister than to the W ex-president.
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There is a certain feeling, it is true, that ,`„ neral Spinola was let down by some whose -1,.'PPort he might have expected to enjoy, not ast that of his successor, General Costa Cie trines. This conviction might have been stro ger still had not General Spinola in his ,813e, ech of resignation given way so completely `4.the 'apres moi le d‘luge' attitude which has 'en tended to colour his addresses to the ;nation. In fact General Costa Gomes appears to },!ve acted as a kind of arbitrator in the clash tween prime minister and president, with all e°ncerned well aware that he was the only Possible successor. It must be remembered that eneral Costa Gomes was General Spinola's nlilitarY superior; it was in part his decision that author. ised the publication of Portugal and the which subsequently cost both men 6eir positions, until the coup occurred. eneral
3 Costa Gomes may have been quite 13rellared during recent months to wait to become the first elected president of the Second Aepui,1•
but certain sections of the Armed a —ces would have been happy to see him Pointed in April. ceAs things are, the Spinolistas, or forces of the v n. tre-right, are in disarray, and have effectir„elY been tarred with the brush of being tiactionaries. A quick purge has been made ot re Junta of National Salvation and the cabinet, tigh the composition of the latter is little `"%tected. 17.thSome 160 people allegedly connected a Plot to stage a counter-revolution are in the government has taken the ei4ePortunity to step up its campaign against w.,enorrlic and financial Monopolists,' some of have already left the country, their '4s_ets being frozen. thtsut there is no firm information concerning srlaPposed plot, which inevitably creates a „7„Pleion that in no real sense did it exist. The FCertirnent has congratulated the people on trialrt swift and thorough reaction to rumours pre arms were being brought into Lisbon in Paration for a coup, and students are daily susPlacard' rne• . Ing walls with details of allegedly eicious individuals and their cars; but on a vve,r sober appreciation the searches for eat:'13'3ns perhaps carry more disturbing impli ions for the Preservation of civil liberties than Geriern, Y consequences of the departure of thev„ Pinola. One might have expected that -v measures, if felt necessary, would have
been left to the army. In fact they were carried out by self-appointed groups of civilian vigilantes whose lack of regard for diplomatic vehicles put the Foreign Minister, Mario Soares, in the embarrassing position of having to apologise to the diplomatic corps for the unceremonious way in which many of its members had been treated.
On the other hand, the foreign press and other news media have undoubtedly over-dramatised the situation. The searches may have been arbitrary but were generally carried out in a restrained and responsible way, and some considerable caches of arms, collected for whatever purposes, have been discovered. In particular the supposed consequences of General Spinola's resignation, which have been said to include a complete split in the Armed Forces Movement and even the threat of civil war, have been sensationalised abroad in a way which the Portuguese resent. They feel that nations which in April were quick to applaud the overthrow of the old regime ought in recent weeks to have been capable of a little more understanding and sympathy. The possibility of any kind of open conflict seems remote indeed at present, and there is no sign of any organised opposition to the government, the most vocal of whose critics are further to the Left.
The prime minister has thus been genuinely indignant at the attitude of some of the foreign press, and has even directed some hard words at the BBC. Partly for this reason he is suggesting that at the moment Portugal can hardly afford the luxury of impartial news media at home, and that it is the latter's duty to publicise and explain the government's policies and intentions, while not censoring other points of view. In their inexperience and their enthusiasm to follow this line the news media can easily fall into some rather ludicrous attitudes, which deserved General Spinola's castigation.
Nevertheless, there is almost total support for a new economic and social order, even if not all its manifestations are as well-publicised as the voluntary day of work on the Sunday after the anniversary of the founding of the First Republic in October 1910. For example, not only students but workers, such as those on the staff of IBM Portugal, have in some cases given up their holidays in order to go and preach the idea of social change to the rural communities in remote provinces like Trgs-os-Montes. Despite being careful not to behave in any way which might give offence, these volunteers have so far met with only limited success. The influence still wielded in such areas by the local parish priest is often considerable, which may expalin the prime minister's recent hint to the clergy that they concern themselves with pastoral rather than political matters. It will be interesting to observe the church's reaction, but it is unlikely that the bishops will want to be manoeuvred into a position of confrontation with the government.
The most active intermediary between government and people, however, is the Armed Forces Movement itself and in particular the organisation known as COPCON. This was established for precisely this purpose, as well as for security reasons, and is commanded by one of the leading figures in the coup of April 25, Brigadier (in April only Major) Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho. The Armed Forces Movement has in many places taken over direct control of local government and is now engaged as a matter of urgency in explaining recent events in Lisbon to the provinces. One small item in the newspaper illustrates, almost accidentally, the place now occupied by the armed forces in the administration of the country. An unfortunate young couple making a long train journey to the north were discovered to have lost their tickets and were made to leave the train with their baby. Having no money to buy fresh tickets they were directed to the local town hall to tell their sad story. Here the president of the council provided the necessary funds out of his own pocket and threw in a little extra for milk for the baby. It came as no surprise to learn that this worthy man is a lieutenant-colonel in the army.
John Vincent-Smith is writing the volume on Modern Portugal in Ernest Benn's "Nations of the World" series
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