People power

Abstract

The first clash between the parties that represented the people and the minority that controlled the government did not take long to materialise. On May, just a year after the tumultuous May Day demonstrations with which Lisbon had celebrated its first days of freedom, a travesty of the same spectacle was held. The Communist union monopoly, Intersindical, held a small rally, attended by about 6000 people, in the First of May stadium in north-eastern Lisbon, to which neither the Socialists nor the Popular Democrats were officially invited. President Costa Gomes and prime minister Vasco Goncalves appeared on the platform beside the Communist leader, Alvaro Cunhal. Mario Soares angrily decided to lead a small band of his supporters to the rally, and managed to push his way past Communist stewards at the gate. But soldiers forcibly prevented him from getting on to the platform, and he had furious exchanges with near-by MFA leaders, who threatened to summon the leader of Portugal’s largest party to appear before a military tribunal. He was escorted away by armed soldiers.