António de Spínola and portuguese democracy. Narratives on the revolutionary process

Abstract

This proposal seeks to analyze the trajectory of António de Spínola after his return to the country in 1976. A unifying figure for the Portuguese extreme right, the former President of the Republic headed the Democratic Movement for the Liberation of Portugal and was linked to the wave of bombing violence that spread in 1975 and 1976. However, after his return without trial in August 1976, Spínola was rehabilitated: reinstated in the Army in 1978, appointed Marshal in 1981 and Chancellor of the Military Orders in 1987. In 1984, Spínola presided over the Commission for the Celebrations of the 10th Anniversary of the 25th of April, thus becoming the official symbol of the Carnation Revolution. The rehabilitation of the figure of António de Spínola by Portuguese democracy exemplifies the invisibility of extreme right-wing violence. The article question the current memory of the revolutionary process and the silences that remain.