In Europe

force and the navy. The most I could get out of them was their promise not to intervene. We were quite skilled at the art of maintaining secrecy, but the government must have noticed something, it had to, there were too many people involved. But then, what could they do? If they had arrested all of us, they would have had no one left to send to war.
    ‘Alongside that, I had a major personal problem: my father-in-law. At that same moment, as chance would have it, Almeida was chief of the general staff. And I, Vítor Alves, had to start a revolution against him. It was an extremely painful situation. My father-in-law was crazy about me, he only had daughters and from the moment I showed up in the family I was an unexpected joy for him, his favourite, a son. Our relationship had always been intense. But back then, in 1974, Almeida was the last person I could talk to about what I was doing. His daughter, my wife, also took part in the rebellion, she knew that something was on its way, all the major meetings were held at our house … Yes, indeed … Brutus …
    ‘Finally, the moment arrived. On 23 April a man was sitting on a park bench behind the statue of the Marquis de Pombal, discreetly handing out envelopes to a few passers-by. All the instructions for the next day were in there, the entire scenario: troop movements, positions, everything down to the minute. That night, of course, I didn't sleep a wink. At precisely 12.25 a.m., Radio Renaissance played the forbidden song ‘Grandola’. That was the signal we had agreed on for the rebellion. All over Portugal, MFA units came into action. By 3 a.m. they had occupied the radio and television stations, the airports and the centre of Lisbon. My job was to neutralise the army top brass, and that all went very well, exactly according to plan. Prime Minister Caetano fled to the police barracks in the Largo do Carmo, that evening he surrendered, and by the end of the day it was all over.
    ‘My father-in-law was treated well, I saw to that, no one harmed ahair on his head. But still, that coup – I must be frank – placed a great burden on our relationship. He kept saying: why didn't you tell me? But if I had fold him I would have placed him in an impossible position. He would either have had to turn us all in, have his daughter's husband arrested, or be a traitor to his own government.
    ‘Spínola became the head of our provisional government, we officers stayed in the background, we wanted the international community to see that respectable people had seized power here. The only unexpected thing was the reaction in the streets: we had never expected our coup to generate such a massive explosion of joy and sympathy. And, at the same time, that was a problem for us. It was a bottle of champagne that was suddenly uncorked, and drops flew everywhere; hundreds of political groups began popping up. Within two months our own MFA was deeply divided. One group ganged together around Spínola. That was the most conservative movement, they attempted a couple of coups and then disappeared from the scene. Then you had the Otelists, left-wing radicals around security chief General Otelo de Carvalho. That was the group we belonged to, socialists and social democrats. And there was a big communist group around Vasco Gonçalves.
    ‘A number of things turned out well. Peace came to Africa: Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique and Angola became independent. But Portugal itself looked like it was gradually disintegrating. That first year – I had been appointed deputy prime minister – we put most of our effort into breathing new life into the country's locked economic and social life. And the army had to be reorganised and agricultural reforms carried out. At the same time, all kinds of people were coming back from Africa, some of them relieved, others angry and disappointed, and that didn't make the political situation any easier.
    ‘In March 1975 the right-wing elements made a final attempt to get back into power, under Spínola. When that failed, he fled to Spain. The next month, on the first anniversary of the revolution, elections were held. The communists didn't do too well, Mário Soares’ social democrats won, but the group of officers around Otelo de Carvalho didn't want to abide by that. Finally, in November 1975, we carried out a second coup under General Antonio Eanes, threw the radicals out of the government and organized new elections. After that, the political situation