How Portugal’s Revolutionaries Overthrew the Dictatorship
In The Carnation Revolution, Alex Fernandes provides an account of the movement that overthrew decades of dictatorship, written with the flair and dramatic sensibility of a spy thriller.
Armed Forces Movement soldiers are greeted by the crowd in the streets of Lisbon, two days after the April 25, 1974, coup that overthrew the New State dictatorship. (Henri Bureau / Sygma / Corbis / VCG via Getty Images)
In Brighton in early April of 1974, ABBA won Eurovision for Sweden. It would be the first of the country’s seven wins to date. Portugal’s entry, “E depois do adeus,” sung by Paulo de Carvalho, tied for last place. Despite its poor performance, the song was on heavy rotation on Portuguese radio in the weeks after the contest. Its innocuous nature and ready availability on tape in Lisbon’s EAL radio station led de Carvalho’s not-quite hit to be selected by a group of young military officers as the signal that their planned coup was underway.
De Carvallho would enter the history books crooning on a far bigger stage than Eurovision. Twenty-four hours later, on April 25, Portugal would be free from forty-eight years of dictatorship. Most people are probably more familiar with “Waterloo” than “E depois do adeus,” but as Alex Fernandes tells us in his new history of the 1974 coup, “ABBA never started a revolution.”
Released in time to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the overthrow of the dictatorship, The Carnation Revolution reads more like a thriller than a history book, taking the reader through the conspiracy of young captains who brought a democratic Portugal into existence.
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