Some things I saw at Freedom Day
But mostly an excuse to share some photography with you
This past Friday, April 25th, was Freedom Day here in Portugal. It commemorates the anniversary of the military coup that overthrew Salazar’s fascist Estado Novo regime in 1974 (though Salazar himself had already been dead for several years by then, and thus managing to avoid the Mussolini Treatment). Like our1 own Independence Day, it’s a public holiday, with parades and music and general merriment, so we headed down to Praça do Republica here in Coimbra to check it out.
Unlike us, however, the Portuguese take the reason for the day quite seriously. That isn’t really a surprise; it’s only been 51 years since fascism fell here, and there are still many Portuguese who remember the terrors of life under fascism and the secret police force that enabled it. We in the USA have never had anything like the Estado Novo—even now, despite one of our two political parties expending significant effort to create a home-grown version for us, we aren’t even close yet—and so we as a society don’t have that deep-seated fear, that instinctive revulsion towards fascism and the brutality it inevitably brings that comes with firsthand knowledge of the subject.
I don’t speak Portuguese yet (I’m working on it), but my extremely rudimentary Spanish was enough to help give me the gist of some of the signs. It was no help at all when it came to actually understanding the chants—and man, there were chants: Bullhorns, call-and-response, all of it—but I still got the message: The Portuguese people are not going back, dammit. They, their parents, their grandparents, they all paid for the freedom they currently enjoy and are not about to let some failed game show host (just as a random example) rip it away from them.
In America, we don’t have many people left who fought fascism directly; our World War II vets are almost all gone now. We celebrate our Independence Day by celebrating ourselves and a version of our country and its history that flatters us. We cheer for militaristic displays like Blue Angels flyovers or fireworks (though I do enjoy a good fireworks display, not gonna lie about that). The only chants you’re likely to hear are U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!, like we’re at a hockey game or something. I don’t think being proud of your country and its people is a bad thing, unless and until it tips into narcissism. It might do us some good to be a bit more reflective about what freedom and liberty really mean, and what it can cost to get them back once they’re gone.
All that said, Portugal isn’t anywhere close to perfect. There are people who want to turn back the clock here. Portugal has a snap election coming up in the next few weeks (the current prime minister lost a no confidence vote because of a financial scandal—remember when things like that mattered in America? Good times). The far-right, fascist-friendly Chega party seems to be mired in the 15% - 17% range in opinion polls, which is good enough for third place. I don’t know enough about Portuguese politics to know what that means from a practical standpoint; all I know is that anything above a fringe-level of support for these people is too much for my liking, and that if our own country’s history is anything to go by, time might be on their side as the Portuguese who remember the days of Salazar and PIDE gradually die off.
I sure hope not, though.
All photos by me. Don’t steal them. That’s very uncool.
Okay, maybe this doesn’t include you specifically. I have no idea where in the world you are, or what it says on your passport.
I didn't know you were in Portugal!