The President of the Republic defended today that nothing in contemporary history compares to April 25, 1974, due to the changes it entailed, in a speech in which he recalled the protagonists of Portuguese democracy over the last five decades.
«Therefore, it is unfair to compare the incomparable, and forget the global costs of what we experienced, and even the costs of the revolution, which only existed because the dictatorship did not know how or did not want to make a transition, unlike neighboring Spain», considered Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, at the solemn session commemorating the 50th anniversary of the 25th of April at the Assembly of the Republic.
In his intervention, which lasted close to half an hour, the head of state mentioned, although without naming them, Ramalho Eanes, Mário Soares, Francisco Sá Carneiro, Álvaro Cunhal, Freitas do Amaral and Cavaco Silva, among others, when talking about the background of the Carnation Revolution and the stabilization of the democratic regime.
Each name evoked different applause, sometimes more to the right and sometimes more to the left, in the Sala das Sessões, where the former heads of State António Ramalho Eanes and Aníbal Cavaco Silva were present in one of the galleries.
«Many, many others like them fought and won so many times. And others fought and lost, a little or a lot. And some became disillusioned, on the 25th of April, others on the 28th of September, others on the 11th of March, others on Hot Summer, others on the crucial 25th of November, which ended up defining the outcome of the revolution" and still "others throughout the last 50 years», he said.
At this point in his intervention, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa highlighted that the 25th of November 1975 «rightly, like the Constituent Assembly and the Constitution, was always designed to be part of the April celebrations, which will only end in 2026».
«Thus, History is often made and remade more from lows than from highs», he observed.
Then, the President of the Republic asked: «And these ups and downs will be compared to any other political, military, social movement, in our contemporary history, in the history of our oldest European partners or our most recent European partners?».
«No, there is no comparison. The 25th of April entailed at the same time the end of a five-century-old empire, the end of a five-decade dictatorship, economic and political integration in today's European Union and four changes of economic regime», he argued.
According to Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, «no other revolution or military coup was comparable» in contemporary history, because “no other modern European empire faced all these challenges at the same time in less than 30 or 40 years».
«None of our Eastern partners had had extra-European empires or experienced decolonization, democratization, European integration and four changes of economic regime like us. Therefore, it is unfair to compare the incomparable,” he argued.
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