Ernesto Melo Antunes - Career Highlights

Career Highlights

Melo Antunes was the principal author of the political program of the military movement that overthrew the regime, the Movement of the Armed Forces. Known as the 3 D's, the Program of the MFA proposed decolonization, democratization, and development. After the revolution, Melo Antunes was in the forefront of political power and highly respected. He was a member of the Coordinating Commission of the Movement (MFA), and after the revolutionary period was member of the Portuguese Council of State.

He was Minister without Portfolio of the II and II Provisional Governments. One of his first roles was to manage the complex decolonization process, following the promulgation of Law 7/74 on July 27, 1974 that "acknowledged the independence of overseas territories." Melo Antunes was the main negotiator of the independence of Guinea-Bissau.

He was responsible for a Working Group tasked to establish a Socio-Economic Program, under the III Provisional Government. Although the Working Group comprised key socio-economic figures of the period (Rui Vilar, Silva Lopes, Maria de Lurdes Pintasilgo and Vitor Constancio), the document became known as the Plan Melo Antunes. It was a controversial plan, which caused tensions within the Movement of the Armed Forces (MFA), and this was finally overturned on March 11, 1975.

Appointed member of the Revolutionary Council on March 14, 1975, he retained this position until dissolution of the Council as a result of the Constitutional Revision of 1982. He was Minister of Foreign Affairs in the IV (March 26 to August 8, 1975) and VI (September 19, 1975 to July 22, 1976) Provisional Governments.

During the summer (Verao Quente) of intense political-ideological struggle, Melo Antunes produced on August 7, 1975 the Document of Nine (Documento dos Nove), a document released by the Movement of Nine (Movimento dos Nove). This document proposed a third way in the form of an original political platform that rejected the extreme left-wing and the Communist Block-inspired action of the Portuguese Communist Party, as well as the social-democratic model of many countries of Western Europe, while maintaining the importance of a pluralistic democracy. This document was welcomed with relief by both the military and civilian population, disenchanted with the increasing hegemony of Vasco Goncalves and the Portuguese Communist Party, and ended up adopted by all as a common program.

Another of his major political intervention occurred on November 25, 1975, when in the face of pressure to ban the Communist Party, he appeared on television to defend its right to continued existence as an integral part of Portuguese democracy. This act caused him enemies lasting throughout his life, but also led to great admiration for his courage and to his being perceived by many as the "guiding light" for members of the Revolutionary Military who did not wish to see a new dictatorship imposed.

Between 1977 and 1983, he served as President of the Constitutional Commission, the percursor to the Constitutional Tribunal. During the second Presidency of Ramalho Eanes, he served as member of the Council of State, and again during the Presidency of Jorge Sampaio.

He was Advisor (1984) and Assistant Director General (1986–1988) of UNESCO. Despite calls for his candidacy for the Presidency of UNESCO in 1992, the Portuguese Government declined support. In 1991, he joined the Socialist Party, his first formal adherence to any political party. In 2004, he was promoted posthumously to Colonel.