Abstract
This chapter explores the relationship between the Portuguese radical Left and national identity, focusing on two main parties: the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) and the Left Bloc (BE). Stemming from the enduring influence of the 1974 Carnation Revolution, the chapter argues that Portuguese identity has slightly leaned leftwards and remained relatively uncontested politically. The PCP employs a patriotic rhetoric tied to the Revolution and the traditions of Portuguese communism, arguing that national interests align with those of the working class and the people. In contrast, the BE adopts a more nuanced, cosmopolitan stance, avoiding overt national symbolism but still emphasising the concept of ‘the country’ in its discourse, which is the target of the party’s policy proposals. Moreover, both parties have displayed Eurosceptic positions, particularly during periods of heightened European debate.
When one asks a Portuguese for a brief definition of their country, the predictable explanations, setting aside some minor differences, are invariably two: the first, naive and optimistic, will proclaim that there has never existed, under the Sun, another land so remarkable and people so admirable; the second, on the other hand, corrosive and pessimistic, denies these sublime qualities and asserts that, being the last among the last in the European continent for four centuries, we remain content with this position today, even when we protest wanting to get out of it.
José Saramago (Cadernos de Lanzarote – Diário II, Caminho, pp. 254–259, 20/12/1994)
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Notes
- 1.
The man was called Carlos Alberto Ferreira. He died in 2021, and his story can be read on Esquerda.net, the online news channel of the Bloco de Esquerda (https://www.esquerda.net/artigo/faleceu-carlos-alberto-ferreira/74751, accessed 20/04/2021).
- 2.
Compared to other European countries, the Portuguese radical Left is relatively less fragmented. Obviously, there are some RLPs outside of BE and PCP, but they remain very small and without parliamentary representation. For instance, in late 2011, some people from the most left-wing sector of the BE quit the party and announced a new party in March 2012, the Movimento Alternativa Socialista. One year later, others from the right wing of the BE likewise withdrew, rebaptising themselves as Forum Manifesto in July 2014. Under the name Tempo de Avançar, the latter merged with the Livre (Free) party, a pro-EU left-wing party.
- 3.
The alliance is called the Unitary Democratic Coalition (Coligação Democrática Unitária) and it is with this coalition that the PCP usually contests elections. Generally, to refer to the coalition the initials of the coalition (CDU) or the initials of the two parties (PCP-PEV) are used.
- 4.
For a brief description of Eurocommunism, see Sect. 5.3.1.
- 5.
The 1961–1992 PCP leader Àlvaro Cunhal openly criticised the “mistakes” of the USSR: lack of democracy, excessive economic centralism and party bureaucratisation (Cunhal, 1993).
- 6.
On 28 June 1998 a referendum on a new abortion law was conducted in Portugal; the YES was supported by the PCP and by large sectors of the Left, both movements and parties. However, the NO won by a narrow margin and thus the right to abortion was not legalised. It will then be legalised in 2007, after a new referendum was held.
- 7.
As Fishman explains analysing the long-lasting effect of the Revolution, the rapid transformation of Portugal after 25 April led to “the emergence of new symbols, types of expression and discourse. Revolutionary songs, posters and poetry, along with the rapid adoption of red carnations as a symbol of the revolution, all contributed to the speedy transformation of meanings, practices and values. Cultural change proved to be far more widespread and enduring than in the case of more conventional political transitions in other national cases” (Fishman 2018, 26).
- 8.
See footnote 7.
- 9.
As the party declares in its party statute: “Portugal’s entrance into the to the European Economic Community, against which the PCP rightly fought and whose negative implications it predicted, created additional obstacles to a democratic policy, provided pretexts for the destruction of the achievements of April and inserted the country into a dynamic that seriously harms national interests” (PCP, 2012).
- 10.
- 11.
Please consult Appendix 1 for the references of the sources collected for the empirical analysis.
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Custodi, J. (2023). The Portuguese Case. Left-Leaning Banal Nationalism in Portugal?. In: Radical Left Parties and National Identity in Spain, Italy and Portugal. Palgrave Studies in European Political Sociology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-48926-6_6
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