Carnation Revolution - Evaluations of The Revolution's Outcomes

Evaluations of The Revolution's Outcomes

After an earlier period of turmoil, Portugal emerged as a democratic country, to the great delight of many of its citizens and the world in general. It took several years to create a strong democratic government due to the radical leftist inclination of some of the leading revolutionaries, and during this period Portugal divested itself of almost all of its overseas territories and underwent severe economic turmoil, as the old regime had shaped the Portuguese economy with such a stranglehold that it took some time to nationalize and reprivatize businesses. For the Portuguese and their former colonies, this was a very difficult period, but many felt that the short-term effects of the Carnation Revolution were well worth the trouble when civil rights and political freedoms were achieved. The Portuguese celebrate Freedom Day on 25 April every year, and the day is a national holiday in Portugal.

Most moderate or non-aligned political sectors of the population consider that the core objectives of the revolution were achieved.

Some right-wing and non-aligned sectors of the population still regard the developments after the coup d'état, and the revolution itself, as pernicious for the country, including the events which led to thousands of Portuguese destitute refugees who fled from the overseas provinces, and the lengthy civil wars in Angola and Mozambique after their independence.

On the other hand, some of the revolutionaries and left wing partisans were unhappy that the communist and socialist inspiration of the uprising has since been abandoned, especially after the end of land reform, the increase in economic inequalities among the population during the 1990s and the privatization of key sectors of the national economy.

By refusing to grant independence to its overseas territories in Africa, the Portuguese ruling regime of Estado Novo was criticized by most of the international community, and its leaders Salazar and Caetano were accused of being blind to the so-called "winds of change". After the Carnation revolution in 1974 and the fall of the incumbent Portuguese authoritarian regime, almost all the Portugal-ruled territories outside Europe became independent. Several historians have described the stubbornness of the regime as a lack of sensibility to the "Winds of change". For the regime, those overseas possessions were a matter of national interest.

In 2011 when the Portuguese Republic avoided default by requesting international financial assistance to the International Monetary Fund, Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho, one of the best known captains who coordinated and organized the April 1974 military coup - the Carnation Revolution, stated that he wouldn't have taken part in the revolution if he had known what the country would become after it.