Portuguese presidents after Salazar and the "Estado Novo"

Who were, after all, the Portuguese presidents?

Portugal has been a Republic since 1910, and the office of President of the Republic, elected by the Portuguese, was created in 1911. Since then, Portugal has been under 20 presidents, from Manuel de Arriaga, the first Portuguese President of the Republic, to Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, the current holder of the office, elected in 2016.

Over the last century, Portugal has undergone many changes, both political and social, with great emphasis on the end of the Estado Novo regime, with the unfolding of April 25, 1974, and the 'hot' years that followed, with the so-called Ongoing Revolutionary Process (PREC). Throughout all these historical moments, different Presidents of the Republic have stood out for their role in them, and for their figure as mediator and calming of national tempers.

Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa

In 2016, and after 10 years of presidency under Cavaco Silva, the Portuguese elected Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, a well-known name in Portuguese society, as President of the Republic. However, those who think that Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa's political career began there are mistaken. The former law professor at Lisbon University was president of the PSD (Portuguese Social Democratic Party) between 1996 and 1999, and also served as a member of the Constituent Assembly, Secretary of State (1981-1982) and Minister of Parliamentary Affairs (1982-1983) in the Democratic Alliance Government headed by Francisco Pinto Balsemão.

It was as 'resident' commentator for the TVI television channel, however, that Professor Marcelo reached the homes of millions of Portuguese, building a reputation that earned him election in 2016, with 52% of the vote - over 2.4 million votes. The fate repeated itself in 2021, with 60.7% of the vote - over 2.5 million votes.

Cavaco Silva

Before Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa's period as President of the Republic, Portugal lived, however, a decade marked by a strong economic crisis and its consequent recession. With it, the beginning and end of a PSD-CDS coalition government, all under the watchful eye of Cavaco Silva, an unmistakable name in the annals of Portuguese politics. Born in Boliqueime, in the Algarve, and the son of a gas station owner, Aníbal Cavaco Silva has risen to be one of Portugal's most lucid politicians, having ascended to the Presidency of the Republic in 2006, leaving the post 10 years later. Before that, however, he had already been Prime Minister of the country between 1985 and 1995, Finance Minister between 1980 and 1981, and President of the PSD between 1985 and 1995.

A man of numbers, he graduated in 1964 in Economics and Finance from the Higher Institute of Economic and Financial Sciences, with the highest grade of his year, and began to trace his academic path from then on, culminating in winning the position of full professor at the New University of Lisbon in 1979. He has been a PSD militant since the party's founding, and served as Finance Minister in the government of Francisco Sá Carneiro. After the death of the then Prime Minister, however, he refused to take part in the government of Francsico Pinto Balsemão, and was elected in 1981, by Parliament, president of the National Council of the Plan (the body that preceded the Economic and Social Council).

Mário Soares

When talking about Portuguese Presidents of the Republic there is one, however, that cannot be missing from the list. Mário Soares, who was Prime Minister between 1976 and 1978, and then again between 1983 and 1985, and who led (and co-founded) the Socialist Party between 1973 and 1986, became President of the Republic in one of the closest and most controversial presidential elections in the history of modern Portugal. It was 1986, and the presidency of General António Ramalho Eanes had been left behind when the country went to the polls in January of that same year, and ended up going to a second round - something unprecedented in Portugal.

In a nutshell, the 'confrontation' was between Mário Soares, supported by the PS and other voters from the Left, namely the PCP, and Diogo Freitas do Amaral, strongman of the CDS-PP, also supported by the PSD. In the end, Soares would win, in the second round, with 51.18% of the votes. Mário Soares will forever be remembered in the annals of Portuguese history for his role as Prime Minister, for his interventions during the "hot summer" after April 25th 1974, and also for the way he led the country during his mandate as President of the Republic.

António de Spínola

There is a Portugal before the 25th of April 1974 and a Portugal after that date, when the Carnation Revolution took place, putting an end to the Estado Novo regime. After the revolution, it was time to choose a President of the Republic, and what better figure than General António de Spínola, who presided over the Junta de Salvação Nacional (which took over the main functions of running the State after the coup) and who, as representative of the Armed Forces Movement, had himself received the surrender of the Government (which had taken refuge in the Carmo Barracks in Lisbon) from the President of the Council of Ministers, Marcello Caetano.

Spínola would forever be remembered as one of the strongmen of the Revolution, but his presidency, as tends to happen in provisional governments, was short-lived, not least because of disagreements with the direction the Armed Forces Movement was taking. In September of that same year he eventually resigned, leaving the Presidency of the Republic in the hands of General Costa Gomes. But it was not for this reason that he distanced himself from national politics, criticizing the MFA's turn to the left and culminating in the attempted right-wing coup d'état of the March 11, 1975 Intentona.