António de Oliveira Salazar

António de Oliveira Salazar, born on April twenty-eighth, eighteen eighty-nine, was a prominent Portuguese economist and politician who served as the President of the Council of Ministers from nineteen thirty-two until nineteen sixty-eight. His rise to power began under the Ditadura Nacional, which he later transformed into the corporatist Estado Novo, establishing himself as a dictator. This regime became one of the longest-lasting authoritarian governments in modern Europe, enduring until nineteen seventy-four.

Initially a political economy professor at the University of Coimbra, Salazar entered public life as finance minister after the military coup of May twenty-eighth, nineteen twenty-six. He quickly gained a reputation for his financial acumen, balancing the national budget and stabilizing the currency within a year. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Salazar maintained a strict separation between the military and politics, aiming for a de-politicized society rather than mobilization.

Salazar's governance was characterized by conservative, corporatist, and nationalist ideologies, firmly opposing communism, socialism, syndicalism, and liberalism. He distanced his regime from Nazism and fascism, which he criticized for lacking moral and legal boundaries. In nineteen thirty, he established the National Union, promoting it as a non-political entity, while advocating for a social role of the Church without intertwining it with state affairs.

Throughout his rule, Salazar's policies led to economic growth and a decline in illiteracy, although by the end of the Estado Novo, Portugal still faced significant challenges, including low per capita income. He supported Francisco Franco during the Spanish Civil War and managed to keep Portugal neutral during World War II, while still aiding the Allies. His regime was involved in the founding of several international organizations, including NATO and the OECD.

Despite his authoritarian rule, Salazar's government employed censorship and the secret police, PIDE, to suppress dissent. The assassination of opposition leader Humberto Delgado in nineteen sixty-five exemplified the regime's repressive tactics. Following Salazar's coma in nineteen sixty-eight, he was dismissed from his position, and the Estado Novo ultimately collapsed during the Carnation Revolution of nineteen seventy-four, just four years after his death.