When was António de Oliveira Salazar born?
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António de Oliveira Salazar, who was the Prime Minister of Portugal from 1932 to 1968 and leader of the "Estado Novo", was born in Vimieiro, Santa Comba Dão on 28 April 1889.
Santa Comba Dão
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António de Oliveira Salazar (; ; 28 April 1889 – 27 July 1970) was a Portuguese statesman who served as Prime Minister of Portugal from 1932 to 1968. He was responsible for the "Estado Novo" ("New State"), the corporatist authoritarian government that ruled Portugal until 1974.
António de Oliveira Salazar
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Salazar was born in Vimieiro, near Santa Comba Dão (Viseu District), to a family of modest income on April 28, 1889. His father, a small landowner, had started as an agricultural labourer and became the manager for the Perestrelos, a family of rural landowners of the region of Santa Comba Dão who possessed lands and other assets scattered between Viseu and Coimbra. He was the only male child of two fifth cousins, António de Oliveira (1839–1932) and his wife Maria do Resgate Salazar (1845–1926). His four older sisters were Maria do Resgate Salazar de Oliveira, an elementary school teacher; Elisa Salazar de Oliveira; Maria Leopoldina Salazar de Oliveira; and Laura Salazar de Oliveira, who in 1887 married Abel Pais de Sousa, brother of Mário Pais de Sousa, who served as Salazar's Interior Minister.
António de Oliveira Salazar
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In spite of the Salazar regime's use of censorship and inhumane imprisonment of political prisoners in order to suppress dissent, "Life" magazine in July 1940 spoke of him with approbation, describing him as a "a benevolent ruler" and adding that "unambitious, Salazar took the dictatorship by Army request and holds it by popular will. (...) The Salazar dictatorship is easygoing and paternalistic, with wide freedom of speech allowed to its enemies. (...) Friends of democracy may deplore Salazar the dictator but they cannot deny that under the Republic Portugal made an unholy mess of itself and Salazar pulled it out." A reporter from the National Geographic Magazine was surprised with the liberties he enjoyed while in Lisbon, a level of freedom that, according to the reporter, was not available in any other European capital.
António de Oliveira Salazar
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The bridge across the Tagus connecting Lisbon to Almada was named Bridge Salazar upon completion. Built by the "Estado Novo" 6 months ahead of schedule and under budget, it was the 5th longest suspension bridge in the world and the longest outside of the US. It was then renamed '25 April Bridge'. Stadium Salazar, a noteworthy multi-purpose stadium built in Mozambique during the "Estado Novo", was named after Salazar. With 1975's new government it began to degrade. It was renamed Stadium of Machava. Many places across the country (streets, avenues, squares) were named after Salazar. They were renamed since 1974, especially in district capitals. Around 20 localities still reference Salazar today. There are also some azulejos with quotes of Salazar.
António de Oliveira Salazar
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In 1968, Salazar suffered a cerebral hemorrhage. Most sources maintain that it occurred when he fell from a chair in his summer house. In February 2009 though, there were anonymous witnesses who admitted, after some investigation into Salazar's best-kept secrets, that he had fallen in a bath instead of from a chair. As he was expected to die shortly after his fall, President Américo Tomás replaced him with Marcelo Caetano. Despite the injury, Salazar lived for a further two years. When he unexpectedly recovered lucidity, his intimates did not tell him he had been removed from power, instead allowing him to "rule" in privacy until his death in July 1970.
António de Oliveira Salazar
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A trained economist, Salazar entered public life with the support of President Óscar Carmona after the Portuguese "coup d'état" of 28 May 1926, initially as finance minister and later as prime minister. Opposed to democracy, communism, socialism, anarchism and liberalism, the ideology of Portugal was conservative and nationalist in nature. Salazar distanced himself from fascist dictatorships, which he considered a pagan Caesarist political system that recognised neither legal nor moral limits. Salazar viewed German Nazism as espousing pagan elements that he considered repugnant.
Salazar also promoted Catholicism, but argued that the role of the Church was social, not political, and negotiated the Concordat of 1940. One of the mottos of the Salazar regime was ""Deus, Pátria e Familia"" (meaning "God, Fatherland, and Family").
António de Oliveira Salazar
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On 26 June 1940, four days after France's capitulation to Germany, Salazar authorised the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS-HICEM) in Paris to transfer its main office to Lisbon. According to the Lisbon Jewish community, Salazar held Moisés Bensabat Amzalak, the leader of the Lisbon Jewish community, in high esteem, and allowed Amzalak to play an important role in getting Salazar's permission for the transfer.
In July 1940, the civilian population of Gibraltar was evacuated due to imminent attacks expected from Nazi Germany. At that time, Portuguese Madeira agreed to host about 2,500 Gibraltarian refugees, mostly women and children, who arrived at Funchal between 21 July and 13 August 1940 and remained there until the end of the war.
António de Oliveira Salazar
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For forty years, Portugal was governed by a man that had been educated at a seminary, had received minor orders, and had considered becoming a priest. Before accepting the office of minister of finance, Salazar had been associated with several Catholic movements and had developed a very close friendship with Manuel Gonçalves Cerejeira, who in 1929 would become Cardinal-Patriarch of Lisbon. During their university years at Coimbra they shared a house, an old convent known as "Os Grilos".
António de Oliveira Salazar
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In 1921, Salazar was persuaded to stand as a candidate for election to parliament, though he did so reluctantly. He appeared once in the chamber and never returned, struck by the disorder he witnessed and a feeling of futility. Salazar was convinced that liberal individualism had led to fragmentation of society and a perversion of the democratic process.
After the "coup d'état" of 28 May 1926, Salazar briefly joined the government of José Mendes Cabeçadas as Minister of Finance. On 11 June, a small group of officers drove from Lisbon to Santa Comba Dão to persuade him to be Minister of Finance. Salazar spent five days in Lisbon. The conditions he proposed to control spending were refused, he quickly resigned, and in two hours he was on a train back to Coimbra University, explaining that because of the frequent disputes and general disorder in the government, he could not do his work properly.
António de Oliveira Salazar