Hurtling Toward a Climactic Showdown

The defense of Republica is the defense of freedom!

So declared thousands of leaflets distributed by Socialists in the streets of Lisbon last week, as Portugal plunged headlong into its latest political crisis. On one side of the battle lines are the Socialists and their colleagues of the moderate left; on the other the Communists, backed by a powerful faction within the ruling Revolutionary Council. At issue is the future of Portuguese democracy, and the showdown may be at hand.

The storm center of last week's action was the Socialist newspaper Republica, which was seized by its Communist typesetters and then shuttered by the Armed Forces Movement (M.F.A.). Since the Portuguese revolution in April 1974, the well-organized Communists have gained what amounts to virtual control over the nation's television, radio and most of its principal newspapers, which were taken over by the state when the government nationalized the banks last March. For weeks the Communists had also been trying to take control of the editorial policies of Republica, one of the last non-Communist papers in Lisbon. Socialist Editor Raul Rego, 62, who was imprisoned several times by the fascist regime, steadfastly deflected their demands. Last week a "Workers' Commission," dominated by the Communist printers, demanded Rego's resignation.

Branding the Communist action "a maneuver designed to silence yet another free voice in Portugal," Rego locked himself in his office. His editorial staff voted to support him by an overwhelming 22-to-2 margin and declared that Republica was not the "exclusive property of its workers" but of the Portuguese people.

Ugliest Epithet. Outside the building, Socialist Leader Mario Scares and thousands of his supporters kept an all-night vigil in the rain. In the ugliest epithet imaginable, the angry crowd called Communist Leader Alvaro Cunhal "a new Salazar"--after the late dictator who ruled Portugal for more than 40 years. "Este jornal nao e de Cunhal! [This paper is not Cunhal's]" the Socialists shouted. Several times paratroopers sent to guard the building fired shots into the air; the crowd responded by shouting, "Assassins!" Finally Minister of Social Communications Jorge Correia Jesuino, representing the 30-man Revolutionary Council that really governs Portugal, ordered the premises evacuated and referred the case to the courts. Whether the newspaper will be able to resume publication is in doubt.

For Soares and his beleaguered Socialists, the closing of Republica was perhaps the most ominous setback in their struggle for survival. Only four weeks ago, in Portugal's first free elections in half a century, the Socialists outpolled everybody, with 38% of the vote, and even carried what had been considered Communist strongholds in Lisbon, Oporto and the agricultural south. The middle-of-the-road Popular Democrats won 26% of the vote. The Communists ran a poor third with only 12.5%.

But in revolutionary Portugal, electoral popularity does not equal political power. Four times since the April elections the Socialists have engaged in tests of strength with the Communists, and four times the Socialists have lost. On May 1, Soares was roughed up by members of the Communist-dominated. In-tersindical, the country's single, 2 million-worker union federation, and prevented from participating in a May Day celebration at the Lisbon Stadium. A few days later, the Socialists demanded that free elections be held in the labor unions, pointing out that almost none of the incumbent officials had been elected by secret ballot but had simply grabbed their posts shortly after the revolution. The Revolutionary Council said no. Later the Socialists called for free elections by secret ballot in the local governments, most of which had also been seized by the Communists. The self-appointed functionaries remain in office.

Then came the closing of Republica, and the Socialists dug in their heels. Scares, a Minister Without Portfolio in the military-dominated government, announced that he and a second Socialist Minister would refuse to participate in Cabinet meetings until the newspaper is allowed to resume publication--and might remove themselves from the government altogether. At a crowded press conference, the Socialist leader declared, "The Portuguese people will not accept the imposition of a Communist dictatorship in Portugal. We are not being conducted toward socialism, but rather into economic degradation and anarchy. If you are not a Communist in Portugal today, you are considered a reactionary and an enemy of the revolution." The Socialists were anxious to continue to participate in the government, he emphasized, but added, "It is necessary that we be respected."

That night more than 40,000 Socialists staged a giant demonstration in Lisbon's Rossio Square, waving red banners emblazoned with their clenched-fist symbol and shouting, "No, no, no to false information!" as they marched past the daily Diario de Noticias, whose editor is a Communist. Said one old worker, who watched the Socialists parade along the Avenida da Liberdade with their red flags flying: "There go the real democrats. Cunhal calls himself a democrat, but we all know he is a Communist--a wolf in sheep's clothing." In front of his own headquarters, Scares implored the crowd, "Do not make this the saddest month of May since 1926," the year of the fascist coup. He added, "We are the majority party, and it is time that the Revolutionary Council says if it wants to govern with the support of the majority or against their will."

Choking Options. The answer may not be long in coming, and it may be a profoundly disturbing one. Moderates on the Revolutionary Council are losing strength swiftly to the radicals who, though they regularly invoke the povo (the people), also regularly disparage the povo for "political unawareness." Increasingly, the firebrands of the M.F.A., declaring that the choice for the nation is between "electoralism or revolution," are choking off all options for Portugal but one: a crisis in which the Revolutionary Council would ban all political parties, thereby leaving the Communists in a position to strengthen their present footholds of power. After three days of almost continuous meetings on the Republica crisis, the Revolutionary Council pooh-poohed the Socialist reaction as "out of proportion to the incident," then warned, "The defense of liberty is not exclusively in the hands of any one political party but rather of the Armed Forces Movement and the Portuguese people." The words are hauntingly familiar, as well they should be. They have been uttered, in one form or another, by a long line of dictators who, as soldiers, thought they knew best what was best for the people.

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