“Cunhal was very tough, but President Costa Gomes was tough.” Marcelo recalls the moment when a civil war was avoided in the country
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa highlighted, in an interview with former Prime Minister António Costa, the moment when former President Costa Gomes called Álvaro Cunhal to Belém, to try to avoid a civil war.
“Today the perception is that it was a very tough conversation, because Dr. Cunhal was very tough, but President Costa Gomes was tough”, observed Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa regarding one of the most sensitive moments in the construction of Portuguese democracy, in 1975.
In the program “Conversas de Excelência”, on the News Now channel, former Prime Minister António Costa led the current head of State on an excursion into the paths of his six predecessors in office.
In the episode broadcast this Sunday, he said that Costa Gomes (who held the Presidency of the Republic from September 1974 to June 1976) was “a brain” who always had “20 mathematics” but was “very shy” and who fell in love with his wife whom he would later marry, Estela Costa Gomes, having seen her portrayed in a painting by Henrique de Medina, dressed as a Minho woman.
“Radical left is defeated” on November 25th
In this first episode, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa recalled the “determining role” of Costa Gomes in “avoiding a civil war” and of the historic leader of the PCP Álvaro Cunhal on November 25, 1975: “President Costa Gomes convinces Dr. Cunhal to to curb what was perhaps the party’s base momentum, to avoid a civil war”.
“When the 25th of November arrives, the radical left is defeated. The Portuguese Communist Party, apparently, initially thinks that it can still stop the move to the right. The fact is that President Costa Gomes calls Belém the military officials and manages what is happening in Belém and calls Dr. Cunhal”, says Marcelo.
At this point, António Costa notes that “there are those who understand” that one of the reasons why the Communist Party “exited the 25th of November and, deep down, on the 25th of November the revolution ended”, was because “what was truly at stake cause was to condition the country until the completion of the decolonization process”.
For Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, “the two versions are not incompatible”.
“I just say, I think you’re right [quem afirma] that President Costa Gomes’ role was as a tough moderator in relation to the stubbornness of the Communist Party”.
On the other hand, he added, “Dr. Álvaro Cunhal deep down was also aware of the risks he was taking because it is necessary to see that immediately afterwards there were movements further to the right that wanted to ban the Communist Party.”
