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Fado, Fatima and football - Letter from The Algarve by Frances Ruddick
• 12 Apr 2007 •
 PERHAPS someone wiser than me can explain how Portugal’s ex-dictator, Salazar, has been voted as ‘The Greatest Portuguese?’
In a similar television ballot in Britain, Winston Churchill came top and I’m sure few people can object to that but – for goodness sake – Salazar was a dictator.
His only true claim to fame – that he put Portugal’s economy back into the black after years of treasury mismanagement – surely does not excuse his behaviour?
From the beginning of his reign in 1928 he set his own agenda, only agreeing to manage Portugal’s budget if he was given total control over every aspect of government and civil service spending.
His economic brain was good – more than a match for the current British Chancellor, Gordon Brown – and in the space of a year he had balanced the books. His reward was to be appointed as Prime Minister, a job that lasted for 36 years.
During that time he created a one party state, introduced strict censorship, promoted himself through propaganda, banned trade unions and took complete control of education to keep the masses down.
He was less cruel than Hitler and Mussolini and marginally better than Franco in Spain, but nevertheless his track record for human rights was appalling.
He fed the population on a diet of fado, Fatima and football which kept most of them content, alongside the improved economy, more jobs and public building projects.
It was those that sought democracy or had the temerity to criticise him or the ‘New State’ (Estado Novo) that found themselves in trouble.
A secret police force – the PIDE – was trained in Gestapo-style tactics of torture that would leave no visible scars. A team of torture tutors from Mussolini’s Italy was assigned to teach Salazar’s police force how this could be done.
To the general populace the importance of the enforcement of law and order was explained. Many welcomed the idea of improved policing, unaware that the new law enforcement regime was looking for political malcontents. These people were not common criminals and without access to the media, neither their opinions nor arrests, reached the public forum.
Most political detainees were shipped to a remote island in the Azores. Later, a concentration camp was set up further a field on the Portuguese Cape Verde Islands, off the coast of Mauritania in West Africa.
Although there was no death penalty, many perished due to the harsh conditions imposed.
There are no figures to state how many died but at one demonstration alone, when industrial workers were asking for the reinstatement of trade unions, there were more than 1,000 arrests and 150 men were deported.
Information about such protests was suppressed and the populace kept so far in the dark that some 100,000 citizens became police informers, tittle-tattling about neighbours and workmates who made any complaint about Salazar.
Yes, this is the same man just voted as ‘The Greatest Portuguese.’
It’s true that the nation is noted for its sentimental longing for the past, a condition known as ‘saudade.’ There’s nothing wrong with nostalgia but when fellow citizens have died to bring democracy, voting for an ex-dictator is like stamping on their graves.
Two years ago, I had the privilege of meeting Algarve resident, Carlos Brito. He was a political prisoner in Lisbon for eight years under Salazar’s regime, charged with attending a political rally when he went to meet a Russian author at the airport.
Following the Carnation Revolution on April 25 1974, Carlos became the elected representative for the Algarve in the new parliament. He held the position from 1975 until 1991. Now quietly retired, I hope the results of the recent ballot don’t feel like a smack in the face. |  Return to Top
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