Lisbon Portugal — Military vehicles and red carnations return to the streets and squares of central Lisbon on Thursday as Portugal recreates dramatic moments of the military coup that brought democracy 50 years ago.
Thousands of people are expected to attend celebrations of the so-called Carnation Revolution, which ended a suffocating four-decade dictatorship established by Antonio Salazar. It also paved the way for Portugal’s entry in 1986 into the European Union, then called the European Economic Community.
At the time, political turmoil and uncertainty in NATO member Portugal caused alarm in Western capitals as the Portuguese Communist Party appeared poised to seize power. The moderate parties, however, won at the polls.
As a national holiday began in Lisbon on Thursday, a column of troops and armored vehicles were due to arrive at a downtown square as part of a reenactment of one of the early stages of the uprising, when units took up planned positions at key locations in the capital.
Later, the soldiers had to represent the convergence of the insurrectionists at a paramilitary garrison in a jacaranda-dotted square called Largo do Carmo. Marcelo Caetano, the Portuguese leader of the time, was raised there and surrounded by jubilant troops and civilians before surrendering.
Thousands of people were expected to take part in an annual afternoon march along the city’s main street, Avenida da Liberdade (Freedom Avenue).
People attending April 25 celebrations often carry red carnations, which were abundant in Portuguese shops and street stalls in the spring of 1974. People stuck them into the barrels of the insurgents’ guns.
Latent frustration over the prolonged colonial wars against independence movements in Africa stimulated the revolt of junior officers, which managed to overthrow the dictatorship in about 24 hours with only five deaths.
Salazar, who died in 1970, clung to African colonies long after other European powers withdrew from the continent and resisted modernizing his country amid Europe’s cultural changes in the 1960s.
Salazar’s government lasted about the same period as that of General Francisco Franco in neighboring Spain, although his period in power was much less bloody.
Current Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and Prime Minister Luis Montenegro were among public figures scheduled to address a ceremony at the National Assembly, Portugal’s parliament.