Report by Rita Hasse Ferreira / Photos by Diana Barbosa

‘It is very important to keep the history of democracy in Portugal very much in the public eye,’ says historian Fernando Rosas, who turned 80 on 18 April. Honoured on 20 April at NOVA FCSH, where he co-founded the Institute of Contemporary History (IHC) 36 years ago, this pioneer of the historiography of the Estado Novo and Salazarism in Portugal does not hesitate to emphasise the urgency of history ‘in these cloudy times’.

Referring to ‘the rule of the strong over the weak, the rise of the fascist right, the control of a new techno-oligarchy and the social production of indifference’, NOVA FCSH’s first Professor Emeritus insists that ‘it is urgent to understand the historical factors behind these phenomena’ in order to find ways to safeguard and renew democracy. We must ‘study in order to act and act in order to study again’, he argues, promising: ‘As long as I have my wits about me and strength in my legs, you can count on me’.

Forty years after the publication of O Estado Novo nos Anos 30 [Estado Novo in the 1930s] and the seminal international colloquium Estado Novo, das Origens ao Fim da Autarcia, held in November 1986 at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon, the tribute conference Reler Fernando Rosas [Rereading Fernando Rosas] invited us to revisit ‘a work that has been absolutely essential for several decades’, as she recalled, at the opening, Alexandra Curvelo, art historian and Director of NOVA FCSH.

One of the aims was to explore how the ideas, theories and concepts put forward by Fernando Rosas remain relevant for the future, through an innovative debate format in which 11 key works by the historian – who continues to write and publish – were re-examined by an equal number of researchers, most of whom are former students and doctoral candidates of the now-retired professor¹.

In a re-reading of Salazar e o Poder: a Arte de Saber Durar [Salazar and Power: The Art of Endurance] (2012), the Director of the IHC, Luís Trindade, highlighted the way in which the Estado Novo managed to absorb the various Portuguese right-wing factions, whilst also suggesting that the author’s own writing be re-examined and the complexity of the language he uses analysed to convey the ambivalences of the dictatorial regime that ruled Portugal between 1933 and 1974. Examples of this include expressions he coined, such as ‘Delgadist earthquake’ or ‘pressure cooker’ (a metaphor for the social unrest that contributed to the 25 April revolution), or the use of pairs of adjectives such as ‘totalitarian’ and ‘conservative’, which never cancel each other out, creating tension.

A unique legacy of pioneering new fields of historiography

‘I tried to maintain a critical distance from these events, but I always knew which side of history I belonged to,’ remarked the honouree, who never ‘even considered comparing the incomparable’. He was arrested twice by the PIDE [Portuguese political police], in Caxias and in Peniche, where the National Museum of Resistance and Freedom, which he helped to establish, has been located since 2024. He was arrested again after 25 April 1974, by the Mainland Operational Command (COPCON)².

Rosas was an actor in the history he studied. A history that sees itself as a civic practice, providing raw material for the public use of the past, ‘against apathy and forgetfulness’. In the 1980s, Portugal seemed to have lost its memory. The starting point, he recalls, was the bewilderment at the longevity of the Estado Novo: ‘how was it possible for a regime with such characteristics to last 40 years?’

‘If there is a Estado Novo as described by Fernando Rosas, and there is, it lies in the regime’s ‘theory of triple economic and social equilibrium’ – based on containment/repression and the arbitration of conflicting interests –’ states Álvaro Garrido, professor at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Coimbra and researcher at CEIS20, who was invited to re-examine O Estado Novo nos Anos 30 (1986).

In addition to the prominent role played by the author of O Estado Novo (1994) in the historiography of the authoritarian regime, Rosas’s master’s and doctoral student, Irene Flunser Pimentel, also highlights another way of ‘establishing a school of thought in a planned manner’, by introducing these studies into the bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral programmes in History, strengthening the curriculum, engaging students for subsequent stages of education, taking them to the archives and founding the Institute of Contemporary History. Winner of the Pessoa Prize in 2007, the IHC researcher and scholar of the Estado Novo’s political police became known as the ‘the PIDE lady’ amongst the staff at the National Archives].

‘Another Time’ at NOVA FCSH

‘There was no history of the Estado Novo before,’ confirms Maria Fernanda Rollo. ‘No one dared to discuss fascism and the regime,’ attests the historian, professor and former Secretary of State for Science, Technology and Higher Education. A student of Rosas in 1986/87, ‘at a time when Contemporary History was viewed by some in this institution as “a sort of journalism”‘, she praises his ‘tremendous historical intuition’, adding that he ‘broke down countless barriers and marked the renewal of 20th-century historiography’.

In the 1980s and 1990s, the facilities at NOVA FCSH were not the best. Fernando Rosas was a diligent and punctual lecturer, and his classes would start early and continue afterwards, in the garden or at the Fátima café, for example, as recalled by Luís Nuno Rodrigues, Head of the Department of History at Iscte – Instituto Universitário de Lisboa and a researcher at CEI-Iscte. A former undergraduate and postgraduate student of Rosas, Rodrigues sees him as an educator whose role extends beyond the classroom. ‘It was a different time, when it was possible to take a genuine interest in the students,’ reflects Fernando Rosas himself, referring to classes of 30 students and his four or five hours of weekly teaching load.

Between one decade and the next, Pedro Aires Oliveira arrived at Avenida de Berna; he is now an Associate Professor and coordinator of the Master’s programme in History in the Public Sphere at NOVA FCSH, having just had ‘his first encounter with Fernando Rosas’s oratorical skills’ at a party rally at A Voz do Operário in Lisbon. The 1988 book, O Salazarismo e a Aliança Luso-Britânica [Salazarism and the Anglo-Portuguese Alliance], which he has now reread, ‘was a breath of fresh air’, encouraging the reader to situate the actors involved within a much broader narrative than that proposed by the diplomatic studies of the time, says the current Director of the Faculty Libraries.

Understanding the present to better know the past

‘The complex comparative study of different dictatorial systems in post-World War II Europe’ is the most innovative aspect of the book Salazar e os Fascismos [Salazar and Fascisms] (2019), notes IHC researcher Luís Farinha. The former Director of the Aljube Museum – Resistance and Freedom also recalls Rosas’ insights regarding the existence of similar crises of authoritarianism as early as the 19th century.

For Mária Inácia Rezola, who holds a bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree in Contemporary History from NOVA FCSH, and is Executive Commissioner for the 50th Anniversary Commemorations of the 25 April Revolution, the historian’s most striking contribution in Ensaios de Abril [April Essays] (2023), which explains how the Salazar regime fell, is his defence of the Carnation Revolution as the concrete origin of Portuguese democracy. In his own words, ‘there is no democracy in Portugal despite the Revolution; there is democracy in Portugal because of the Revolution’.

‘I’ve had my fill of learning things about myself,’ remarked Fernando Rosas at the end of an intense day of reflection in Auditorium B1 at 26 Av. de Berna. He also issued a warning about ‘the exploitation and manipulation of the crisis of late capitalism’: ‘We must realise that things will get worse before they get better. As we used to say in my student days, don’t be afraid of being in the minority because, at the turning points of history, the minority perseveres and becomes the majority.’

¹ Following his mandatory retirement from higher education in April 2016, Rosas continued to teach the course on the History of Fascism.
² The Mainland Operational Command (COPCON) was established in 1974 to ‘create the conditions enabling the armed forces to ensure the fulfilment of the objectives of their programme, presented to the nation on 25 April 1974’ (in Diário da República).