PORTUGAL: Democracy Is So Inconvenient

Having tolerated a little bit of democracy, Portugal’s quiet strongman, Premier António de Oliveira Salazar, 69, decided that perhaps it was a dangerous thing. The crowds that came out to see the opposition candidate, Air Force General Humberto Delgado (who in the official count got 23% of the vote last month) had obviously indicated unrest after 26 years of Salazarism. Salazar described himself as “a man always prepared to quit, I will not say without disappointments but without disillusions.”

Hereafter Portugal’s President would be chosen by the National Assembly and the Corporative Chamber, both 100% subservient to Salazar, rather than by the people, Salazar indicated in a rare, hour-long televised speech last week. Salazar admitted that “there may be errors, injustices, deficiencies, delays, abuses” in his regime, but he still thought it fine. “It is,” he said, “inconvenient to have an opposition party.”

Press censorship will continue, he added, because “the problem is extraordinarily difficult, and a satisfactory solution has not been found.” Addressing himself to Portugal’s workers, among the worst paid in Western Europe, Salazar warned: “Strikes are a crime. We are obliged to handle them with extreme harshness, although with bleeding heart.”