End of the Salazar Era

"For a long period, the country grew accustomed to being governed by a man of genius, but from now on it must adapt itself to being governed by men like other men." With those words, Marcello Caetano, a longtime associate of Portuguese Dictator Antonio de Oliveira Salazar, last week became Premier of Portugal, ending 36 years of Salazar rule.

Even as the new Premier was sworn in, Salazar, the victim of a massive stroke, clung to life. But the 79-year-old dictator had been in a coma for ten days, and his doctors had informed President Americo Deus Rodrigues Tomas that he would never recover sufficiently to resume office. Faced with a serious drift in government affairs and rumors that the military might step in, Tomas finally called on Caetano to form a government.

Caetano, 62, is a Lisbon law professor and, like Salazar, he is conservative, correct and Catholic. As such, he is acceptable to Portugal's influential generals and businessmen. But in some respects, Caetano presents a sharp contrast to Salazar. He is married and has four grown children; the former Premier is a withdrawn, painfully austere bachelor. Salazar almost never journeyed beyond Portugal's borders and has equally circumscribed intellectual horizons; Caetano has traveled widely, speaks French, reads English and has a continuing interest in cultural and intellectual developments.

In his first policy statement, the new Premier promised both fidelity to the Salazar legacy and a new direction for the nation's life. "The great danger for pupils is always to do no more than repeat their teacher," he said, "forgetting that a thought must be living if it is to be fruitful. Life is a constant adaptation." In defense of his teacher's leg acy, he began by reappointing all the important Ministers in Salazar's Cabinet to their old posts. And he reaffirmed his predecessor's basic policies of holding onto Portugal's colonies and keeping dissent well under control at home. But at the same time he said that his regime would seek greater communication with the people. He did not elaborate on what form that communication might take, but Portugals' long-oppressed liberals dared hope that it might mean a relaxation of the rigid press censorship that has stifled free expression in Portugal for decades.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.