Santa Comba Dão
António de Oliveira Salazar, who was the Prime Minister of Portugal from 1932 to 1968 and leader of the "Estado Novo", was born in Vimieiro, Santa Comba Dão on 28 April 1889.
António de Oliveira Salazar
Historian Tom Gallagher in 1983 criticised Salazar's excessive promises, writing that "Salazar was being deceitful when he told António Ferro in 1938, 'I estimate that within five years every child in this country will have the opportunity to read and write.' His true policy had been revealed six years earlier when he stated categorically, 'I consider more urgent the creation of elites than the necessity to teach people how to read'." However in a 2018 retrospective Gallagher argues that Salazar focused Portugal on the conservative values of family, local community and the Catholic faith. He rejected the secularism and anticlericalism of the French Revolution, which had a stronghold in the cities but was weak in rural areas. Negative traits that were seen in the governments of other parts of Europe were not prevalent. He never claimed the superiority of a pure Portuguese stock. There was no policy of antisemitism and he helped Jews escape the Nazis. Catholicism was emphasised but the bishops and the pope had to keep their place in the system he quietly controlled without fanfare or charisma. Nationalism was used as a major justification for building a huge global empire that long outlasted those of France, Britain and the others. Salazar also succeeded in using national pride to overwhelm localism and the bitter factionalism that had long troubled the nation before 1930. His coalition brought together monarchists, moderate republicans, businessmen, churchmen, landowners and the military. Each of these groups understood that only with him in charge could their privileges be guaranteed. He believed in stability not democracy, but Portugal remained poor as Europe flourished in the 1960s and 1970s. He spent large sums on soldiers to fight for control of the many colonies; it was a losing battle and by this time the old man was himself losing prestige and stature. He always rejected goals such as modernity and progress and liberalism in favour of tradition, stability and conservatism, and the themes are still echoed into the 21st century by his admirers.