A crowd celebrates on aPanhard EBR armoured car inLisbon, 25 April 1974.
Date
Overthrow of regime: 25 April 1974; 51 years ago (1974-04-25) Entire movement: 22:55, 24 April 1974 (1974-04-24T22:55:00) – 12:00, 30 April 1974 (1974-04-30T12:00:00)[a] (UTC+1)
TheCarnation Revolution (Portuguese:Revolução dos Cravos), code-namedOperation Historic Turn (Operação Viragem Histórica),[6] also known as the25th of April (25 de Abril), was amilitary coup in Portugal by officers that overthrew theEstado Novo regime on 25 April 1974.[7] The coup produced major social, economic, territorial, demographic, and political changes in the European country and itsoverseas colonies through theOngoing Revolutionary Process (Processo Revolucionário em Curso). It resulted in thePortuguese transition to democracy and the end of thePortuguese Colonial War.[8] It also had worldwide repercussions by marking the beginning of thethird wave of democracy.
The Carnation Revolution got its name from the fact that almost no shots were fired, and from restaurant workerCeleste Caeiro who offeredcarnations to soldiers when the population took to the streets to celebrate the end of the dictatorship. Other demonstrators followed suit and placed carnations in the muzzles of guns and on soldiers' uniforms.[11][12] In Portugal, 25 April is anational holiday (Portuguese:Dia da Liberdade, Freedom Day) that commemorates the revolution.
Although there are documented cases of some local elections where an independent candidate who was allowed to run did actually win,[17] those were exceedingly rare and the vast majority weresham elections where the government candidate usually ran unopposed, while the opposition used the limited political freedoms allowed during the brief election period to protest, withdrawing their candidates before the election to deny the regimepolitical legitimacy.
The Estado Novo's political police, thePIDE (Polícia Internacional e de Defesa do Estado, later the DGS, Direcção-Geral de Segurança and originally the PVDE, Polícia de Vigilância e Defesa do Estado),persecuted opponents of the regime, who were often tortured, imprisoned or killed.[18]
In 1958, GeneralHumberto Delgado, a former member of the regime, stood against the regime's presidential candidate,Américo Tomás, and refused to allow his name to be withdrawn. Tomás won the election amidst claims of widespread electoral fraud, and the Salazar government abandoned the practice of popularly electing the president and gave the task to theNational Assembly.[19]
Salazar had astroke in 1968, and was replaced asprime minister byMarcelo Caetano, who adopted a slogan of "continuous evolution", suggesting reforms, such as a monthlypension to rural workers who had never contributed to Portugal'ssocial security. Caetano's Primavera Marcelista (Marcelist Spring) included greater political tolerance, but not a completefreedom of the press (prior censorship remained in place until April 25, 1974), and was seen as an opportunity for the opposition to gainconcessions from the regime. In 1969, Caetano authorised the country's first democratic labour union movement since the 1920s. However, after the elections of1969 and1973, hard-liners in the government and the military pushed back against Caetano, withpolitical repression againstcommunists andanti-colonialists.[citation needed]
One of the largest was the Companhia União Fabril (CUF), with a wide range of interests including cement, petro and agro chemicals, textiles, beverages, naval and electrical engineering,insurance, banking, paper, tourism and mining, with branches, plants and projects throughout the Portuguese Empire.[citation needed]
Other medium-sized family companies specialised in textiles (such as those inCovilhã and the northwest), ceramics, porcelain, glass and crystal (such as those inAlcobaça,Caldas da Rainha andMarinha Grande), engineered wood (such asSONAE, nearPorto), canned fish (Algarve and the northwest), fishing, food and beverages (liqueurs, beer andport wine), tourism (inEstoril,Cascais,Sintra and the Algarve) and agriculture (theAlentejo, known as thebreadbasket of Portugal) by the early-1970s. Rural families engaged in agriculture and forestry.[citation needed]
Income from the colonies came from resource extraction, of oil, coffee, cotton, cashews, coconuts, timber, minerals (including diamonds), metals (such as iron and aluminium), bananas, citrus, tea, sisal, beer, cement, fish and other seafood, beef and textiles.[citation needed]Labour unions were subject to severe restrictions,[22] andminimum wage laws were not enforced. Starting in the 1960s, the outbreak of colonial wars in Africa set off significant social changes, among them the rapid incorporation of women into the labour market.
By the early-1970s, thePortuguese military was overstretched and there was no political solution in sight. Although the number ofcasualties was relatively small, the war had entered its second decade; Portugal faced criticism from the international community, and was becoming increasingly isolated. In 1973 the UN General Assembly passed a resolution calling for Portugal's immediate withdrawal from Guinea.[24] Atrocities such as theWiriyamu Massacre undermined the war's popularity and the government's diplomatic position, although details of the massacre are still disputed.[23][25][26]
The war became unpopular in Portugal, and the country became increasingly polarised. Thousands of left-wing students and anti-war activists avoidedconscription byemigrating illegally, primarily toFrance and theUnited States. Meanwhile, three generations of right-wing militants in Portuguese schools were guided by arevolutionary nationalism partially influenced by Europeanneo-fascism, and supported thePortuguese Empire and an authoritarian regime.[27]
The war had a profound impact on the country. The revolutionaryArmed Forces Movement (MFA) began as an attempt to liberate Portugal from the Estado Novo regime and challenge new military laws which werecoming into force.[28][29] The laws would reduce the military budget and reformulate the Portuguese military.[30] Younger military-academy graduates resented Caetano's programme of commissioning militia officers who completed a brief training course and had served in the colonies' defensive campaigns at the same rank as academy graduates.[24]
By December 1973, it had become clear to several military officers that the Colonial War was unsustainable and the only solution to end it should be a political one, thereforeVasco Lourenço,Vítor Alves andOtelo Saraiva de Carvalho formed a commission to prepare a military coup to topple the regime.[31]
In February 1974, Caetano decided to remove GeneralAntónio de Spínola from the command of Portuguese forces in Guinea in the face of Spínola's increasing disagreement with the promotion of military officers and the direction of Portuguese colonial policy. This occurred shortly after the publication of Spínola's book,Portugal and the Future, which expressed his political and military views of the Portuguese Colonial War. Several military officers who opposed the war formed the MFA to overthrow the government in amilitary coup. The MFA was headed byVítor Alves,Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho and Vasco Lourenço, and was joined later bySalgueiro Maia. The movement was aided by other Portuguese army officers who supported Spínola and democratic civil and military reform.
In March 16, 1974, a group of 200 soldiers headed byArmando Marques Ramos organized a failed military coup inCaldas da Rainha. The unsuccessful attempt managed to convince Marcelo Caetano that the level of unrest in the military against the regime was overrated, and gave the leaders of the MFA the opportunity to learn from the mistakes made.[32][33]
The coup was given the code name "Operation Historic Turn" and it had two secret signals: First, the disc jockey at Emissores Associados de Lisboa gave the time signalFalta cinco minutos às vinte e três at 22:55 on 24 April before turntablingPaulo de Carvalho's "E Depois do Adeus" (Portugal's entry in the1974 Eurovision Song Contest). This alerted rebel captains and soldiers to begin the coup. The second signal came at 12:20 on 25 April, whenRádio Renascença broadcast "Grândola, Vila Morena" (a song byZeca Afonso, an influential politicalfolk musician and singer, many of whose songs were banned from Portuguese radio at the time). The MFA gave the signals to take over strategic points of power in the country. The content of the songs was largely uncontroversial—censorship would have prevented more inflammatory songs—but their broadcasting was a signal, not a direct call to arms.[34][35]
Six hours later, the Caetano government relented. Despite repeated radio appeals from the "Captains of April" (the MFA) advising civilians to stay home, thousands of Portuguese took to the streets – mingling with, and supporting, the military insurgents. A central gathering point was the Lisbon flower market, then richly stocked with carnations (which were in season). Some of the insurgents put carnations in theirgun barrels, an image broadcast on television worldwide[36] which gave the revolution its name. Although nomass demonstrations preceded the coup, spontaneous civilian involvement turned the military coup into a popular revolution "led by radical army officers, soldiers, workers and peasants that toppled the senile Salazar dictatorship, using the language of socialism and democracy. The attempt to radicalise the outcome", noted a contemporary observer of the time, "had little mass support and was easily suppressed by theSocialist Party and its allies."[37]
Caetano found refuge in the main headquarters of the Lisbon military police, theNational Republican Guard, at the Largo do Carmo. This building was surrounded by the MFA, which pressured him to cede power to Spínola. President Tomás was kept on the sidelines during the revolution and was only informed about the events that unfolded byFernando da Silva Pais, head of the GDS. Tomás, his family and some members of the president's staff took refuge at thefort of Giribita, returning, later in the same day, to his personal residence in Lisbon. On the morning of April 26, however, he was sent toMadeira on his way to exile.[38] Caetano and Tomás were sent to Brazil; Caetano spent the rest of his life there, and Tomás returned to Portugal a few years later. The revolution was closely watched by neighbouring Spain, where the government (and the opposition) were planning thesuccession of Spanish dictatorFrancisco Franco. Franco died a year and a half later, in 1975.
The military operation itself ended at 18:00 on 25 April having lasted 19 hours, however hostilities continued in Lisbon until the end of the siege of the national headquarters of theGeneral Directorate of Security (GDS), the siege ended on 09:45 of the next day.[39] At the national level, hostilities continued for several days afterwards with some districts still not recognizing the revolution at Lisbon. That situation continued until the fall ofCoimbra district to the new regime on the 30th.[40]
Hostilities in Lisbon are considered to have ended after the end of the siege of GDS whenFernando da Silva Pais, its last director-general, removed, in the presence of commander Luís Costa Correia, the portraits of Salazar, Caetano, and Tomás from the wall of his office.[41]
The movement still had to ensure the control of all Portugal however, given the resistance by local authorities in other district capitals, the revolution in Lisbon had no practical effects in those districts as the former regime's authorities were still in place there. That was the case of Coimbra where only on 30 April, with the direct involvement of the military, after a four-day siege of the GDS branch in Coimbra headquarters, the new democratic powers were constituted at theuniversity, the city, at thecivil government of thedistrict and at themunicipalities belonging to it.[b]
During the siege of the GDS headquarters, at 20:15 on 25 April, GDS authorities started shootingwarning shots towards the crowd outside the building, killing four civilians and injuring 45. That same evening and the following days, several GDS personnel were arrested. At 21:20 the same evening, a low level GDS staff member, was shot dead by MFA forces.[c] A member of the shockpolice was also shot dead at the Luís de Camões square by the MFAs when in a misunderstanding, they started targeting a motorcade of police cars which the agent was part of. The identities of the perpetrators of all these deaths are still unknown.[45]
The conservative forces surrounding Spinola and the MFA radicals initially confronted each other covertly or overtly, and Spinola was forced to appoint key MFA figures to senior security positions. Right-wing military figures attempted an unsuccessfulcounter-coup, leading to Spinola's removal from office. Unrest within the MFA between leftist forces often close to theCommunist Party, and more moderate groups often allied with the Socialists eventually led to the group's splintering and dissolution.
This stage of the PREC lasted until thecoup of 25 November 1975, led by a group of far-left officers, specifically Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho. It was said to be a Communist plot to seize power, in order to discredit the powerful Communist Party. It was followed by a successful counter-coup by more centrist officers, and was marked by constant friction between liberal-democratic forces and leftist-communist political parties.[46]Portugal's first free election was held on 25 April 1975 to write a new constitution replacing the1933 constitution in force during the Estado Novo era.Another election was held in 1976, and the first constitutional government, led by centre-left socialistMário Soares, took office.
Before April 1974, the intractable Portuguese colonial war in Africa consumed up to 40 percent of the Portuguese budget. Although part of Guinea-Bissau became independentde facto in 1973,Bissau (its capital) and the large towns were still under Portuguese control. In Angola and Mozambique independence movements were active in more remote rural areas from which the Portuguese Army had retreated.
A consequence of the Carnation Revolution was the sudden withdrawal of Portuguese administrative and military personnel from its overseas colonies. Hundreds of thousands ofPortuguese Africans returned to Portugal, becoming known as theretornados. These people—workers, small business people, and farmers—often had deep roots in the former colonies.
A 1978 Portuguese offer to returnMacau to China was refused, as the Chinese government did not want to risk jeopardising negotiations with the UK over returningHong Kong. The territory remained a Portuguese colony until 1999, whenit was transferred to China witha joint declaration, and enacted a "one country, two systems" policy similar to that of Hong Kong.
Pre-revolutionary Portugal had some social and economic achievements.[47] After a long period of economic decline before 1914, the Portuguese economy recovered slightly until 1950. It began a period of economic growth in common with Western Europe, of which it was the poorest country until the 1980s. Portuguese economic growth between 1960 and 1973 (under the Estado Novo regime) created an opportunity for integration with the developed economies of Western Europe despite the colonial war. Through emigration, trade, tourism and foreign investment, individuals and companies changed their patterns of production and consumption. The increasing complexity of a growing economy sparked new technical and organisational challenges.[48][49]
On 13 November 1972, Fundo do Ultramar (The Overseas Fund, asovereign wealth fund) was enacted with Decreto-Lei n.º 448/ /72 and the Ministry of Defence ordinance Portaria 696/72 to finance the war.[50] The increasing burden of the war effort meant that the government had to find continuous sources of financing. Decreto-Lei n.º 353, of 13 July 1973 and Decreto-Lei n.º 409 of 20 August 1973 were enforced to reduce military expenses and increase the number of officers by incorporatingmilitia and military-academy officers as equals.[28][29][51][52]
According to government estimates, about 900,000 hectares (2,200,000 acres) of agricultural land were seized between April 1974 and December 1975 as part ofland reform; about 32 percent of the appropriations were ruled illegal.[full citation needed] In January 1976, the government pledged to restore the illegally occupied land to its owners in 1976, and enacted the Land Reform Review Law the following year. Restoration of illegally occupied land began in 1978.[53][54]
In 1960, Portugal's per-capita GDP was 38 percent of the EEC average. By the end of the Salazar period in 1968 it had risen to 48 percent, and in 1973 it had reached 56.4 percent; the percentages were affected by the 40 percent of the budget which underwrote the African wars. In 1975 (the year of greatest revolutionary turmoil), Portugal's per-capita GDP declined to 52.3 percent of the EEC average. Due to revolutionary economic policies, oil shocks, recession in Europe and the return of hundreds of thousands of overseas Portuguese from its former colonies, Portugal began an economic crisis in 1974–1975.[55]
Real gross domestic product growth resumed as a result of Portugal's economic resurgence since 1985 and adhesion to the EEC. The country's 1991 per-capita GDP reached 54.9 percent of the EEC average, slightly exceeding the level at the height of the revolutionary period.[56]
A January 2011 story in theDiário de Notícias (a Portuguese tabloid format newspaper) reported that thegovernment of Portugal encouraged overspending and investment bubbles in public-private partnerships between 1974 and 2010, and the economy has been damaged by riskycredit,public debt creation,overstaffing in the public sector, a rigid labour market and mismanagedEuropean Union'sstructural and cohesion funds for almost four decades. Prime MinisterJosé Sócrates' cabinet was unable to foresee or forestall this when symptoms first appeared in 2005, and could not ameliorate the situation when Portugal was on the verge of bankruptcy in 2011 and required financial assistance from theInternational Monetary Fund and the European Union.[57]
The constitution of 1976 guarantees all religions the right to practise, and non-Catholic groups are recognised as legal entities with theright to assemble. Non-Catholicconscientious objectors have the right to apply for alternative military service. TheCatholic Church, however, still sought to impede other missionary activity.[58]
Originally named after former Prime Minister António de Oliveira Salazar, the 25 de Abril Bridge is a Lisbon iconMonument to the Carnation Revolution byJoão Cutileiro in Lisbon
Construction of what is now called the25 de Abril Bridge began on 5 November 1962. It opened on 6 August 1966 as the Salazar Bridge, named after Estado Novo leader Salazar. Soon after the Carnation Revolution of 1974, the bridge was renamed the 25 de Abril Bridge to commemorate the revolution. Citizens who removed the large, brass "Salazar" sign from a main pillar of the bridge and painted a provisional "25 de Abril" in its place were recorded on film.
Many Portuguese streets and squares are namedvinte e cinco de Abril (25 April), for the day of the revolution. ThePortuguese Mint chose the 40th anniversary of the Carnation Revolution for its 20142 euro commemorative coin.[59]
Freedom Day (25 April) is anational holiday, with state-sponsored and spontaneous commemorations of the civil liberties and political freedoms achieved after the revolution. It commemorates the 25 April 1974 revolution and Portugal's first free elections on that date the following year.
Setúbal, ville rouge (France–Portugal 1975 documentary, b/w and colour, 16 mm, 93 minutes, by Daniel Edinger) – In October 1975Setúbal, neighbourhood committees, factory committees, soldiers' committees and peasant cooperatives organise a central committee.[60]
Cravos de Abril (April Carnations), 1976 documentary, b/w and colour, 16 mm, 28 minutes, by Ricardo Costa – Depicts the revolutionary events from 24 April to 1 May 1974, illustrated by the French cartoonistSiné.
Scenes from the Class Struggle in Portugal – U.S.–Portugal 1977, 16 mm, b/w and colour, 85 minutes, directed byRobert Kramer
25 de Abril: uma Aventura para a Democracia (25th April: an Adventure for Democracy), 2000 documentary, byEdgar Pêra
TheBBC-madeA New Sun is Born, a two-part television series, for the UK'sOpen University. The first episode details the coup, and the second narrates thetransition to democracy.[61]
Longwave (Les Grandes Ondes (à l'ouest)), a 2013screwball comedy about Swiss radio reporters assigned to Portugal in 1974[62][63]
TheGDR made several films about the revolution and transmitted on state television, including, (Lourenço und der Lieutenant) and (Santa Vitoria gibt nicht auf).
^Although the revolution effectively ended in Lisbon after the fall of the GDS national headquarters on the 26th, some districts were still out of control of the new government until the 30th[1]
^The siege begun at 22:00 on 26 April by civilians who were soon surrounded by local forces of thePublic Security Police still loyal to the former regime, only on the following day at dawn with the arrival of some forces of the military were the police overwhelmed, that was not the case however with the GDS, which only surrendered two days after the arrival ofelite units commanded by Lieutenant colonel Rafael Durão on the 28th.[42]
^António Lage, a low level member of staff, was, together with another worker, the only people still inside the HQ, having high level workers and agents already run away. He was shot dead by sieging forces for running away after he had surrendered himself once he heard shouts of civilians demanding for his execution in retribution for the deaths of four people.[43][44]
^Costa, Victor; Ramires, Alexandre (2014).A força do povo: o 25 de Abril em Coimbra [The force of the people: the 25 of April in Coimbra] (in European Portuguese). Coimbra: Lápis de Memórias (published 3 September 2016).ISBN978-989-8674-05-0. Retrieved18 April 2025.
^Carona, Liliana (26 September 2019)."Os jovens não sabem nada do que era antes do 25 de abril, todos deviam ir votar" [The youth don't know anything about how things used to be before the April 25th, everyone should vote].Rádio Renascença (article) (in European Portuguese). Moimenta da Serra.Archived from the original on 16 November 2025. Retrieved29 October 2025.
^abMatos, José Augusto; Oliveira, Zélia (October 2023).Carnation Revolution. Volume 1: The Road to the Coup that changed Portugal, 1974. Warwick: Helion & Co. Ltd.ISBN9781804513668.
^Presidência da República - Direção de Serviços de Informática - SV (2021)."MPR - Américo Tomás" [President's Museum - Américo Tomás].Museu da Presidência da República Portuguesa (in European Portuguese). Retrieved3 November 2025.
^Cervello, Josep Sanchez (December 1993).A Revolução Portuguesa e a sua Influência na Transição Espanhola (1961-1976) [The Portuguese Revolution and its influence on the Spanish Transition (1961-1976)] (in European Portuguese). Assírio & Alvim.ISBN978-972-37-0317-7.
^Costa, Victor; Ramires, Alexandre (2014).A força do povo: o 25 de Abril em Coimbra [The force of the people: the 25 of April in Coimbra] (in European Portuguese). Coimbra: Lápis de Memórias (published 3 September 2016).ISBN978-989-8674-05-0. Retrieved18 April 2025.
^Costa, Victor; Ramires, Alexandre (2014).A força do povo: o 25 de Abril em Coimbra [The force of the people: the 25 of April in Coimbra] (in European Portuguese). Coimbra: Lápis de Memórias (published 3 September 2016).ISBN978-989-8674-05-0. Retrieved18 April 2025.
^Cordeiro, Olga Telo (25 April 2024)."O sangue esquecido da revolução" [The forgotten blood of the revolution].A Voz de Trás-os-Montes (in European Portuguese). Vila Real.Archived from the original on 25 April 2025. Retrieved18 April 2025.
^Fundação da SEDES – As primeiras motivações (in Portuguese),SEDES, archived fromthe original on 19 March 2012, retrieved6 February 2009,Nos anos 60 e até 1973 teve lugar, provavelmente, o mais rápido período de crescimento económico da nossa História, traduzido na industrialização, na expansão do turismo, no comércio com a EFTA, no desenvolvimento dos sectores financeiros, investimento estrangeiro e grandes projectos de infra-estruturas. Em consequência, os indicadores de rendimentos e consumo acompanham essa evolução, reforçados ainda pelas remessas de emigrantes..
^(in Portuguese) Movimento das Forças Armadas (MFA). In Infopédia [Em linha]. Porto:Porto Editora, 2003–2009. [Consult. 2009-01-07]. Disponível na www: URL:[1].
^"Portugal",Country Studies, U.S. Library of Congress,In the mid-1980s, agricultural productivity was half that of the levels in Greece and Spain and a quarter of the EC average. The land tenure system was polarized between two extremes: small and fragmented family farms in the north and large collective farms in the south that proved incapable of modernizing. The decollectivization of agriculture, which began in modest form in the late 1970s and accelerated in the late 1980s, promised to increase the efficiency of human and land resources in the south during the 1990s.
