 The regime refused these demands, and Norton de Matos withdrew from the election on February 12, 1949.Despite his fierce opposition to Salazar, Norton de Matos also defended Portuguese colonialism but in a more progressive way.In 1953 he published a book titled “Africa Nossa” (“Our Africa”) where he made an appeal for policies that would promote massive territorial occupation by Portuguese white settlers in Africa and at the same time support the gradual assimilation of the African populations.