Restoration of Monarchy in Portugal

[Cory]

After a century of Republic I suppose some portuguese still want the Monarchy.How strong is this feeling in Portugal?

 

[David V]

There is a monarchist movement in Portugal which participates regularly in elections (and was briefly part of a coalition government- Gonçalo Ribeiro Telles was a cabinet minister and also a pioneer of green politics in Portugal), albeit the said party does not support the current head of the house. It does have a seat in the Azores assembly though. In any case, restoration is unlikely since the royal house has long reconciled itself with the government.

The First Republic was a highly unstable and chaotic system, and monarchist sentiment was definitely strong then. I believe that president Sidono Pais was said to have monarchist tendencies, or that monarchist sentiment was strongest under him- though the movement was always represented in parliament.

Then came the long period of dictatorship under Carmona and Salazar, which brought peace and stability albeit through repressive means. This regime was extremely conservative, Catholic and nationalistic- although nowhere not as brutal as seen as in some countries. Actually, compared to the constitutional monarchy and the First Republic, more people were allowed to vote during the dictatorship- although it was meaningless in any case. There was definitely strong monarchist participation in the regime, but also monarchists numbered among the regime's opponents and participated in the politics of the Third Republic from the beginning.

So yes, it is a visible if not large movement which overlaps with the more conservative elements of Portuguese politics. But it is not the sort of mainstream movement that you see in Serbia, or integrated/injected itself into mainstream politics like France.

 

[Elsa M.]

The monarchist movement is irrelevant in Portugal... there's no way to restore the Monarchy in this lifetime.

 

[lazuli]

The monarchist movement is irrelevant in Portugal... there's no way to restore the Monarchy in this lifetime.

Well, we have a long monarchist tradition. Eight centuries aren't exactly eight years. But i admit that, despite of all the agitation of the I Republic, 48 years of a dictatorial regime and an ongoing economical and social crisis, i have managed to live the Republic with dignity. I wouldn't be so radical as to say that Monarchy will never be restored in Portugal, although i must confess it will be VEEERY difficult!!!

 

[Lusa_Monarquia]

I n my opinion the number of monarchists in Portugal is higher than it shows. There are few monarchists that really show themselves without shame, but there are many others hidden. I believe a large number of population has a empathy with monarchy, but really don't mind about it. In a recent poll 15% of people answered that they considered
Portugal would be better if it had remained a monarchy, against 20% who consider
that it is better in a republic (a very small difference taking into account that Portugal is a Republic Country for the last Century, and the information about monarchy is not very much). The remaining had no opinion or did not answer.
I believe that, if people could be informed and choose, it would be possible to restore the monarchy in Portugal, but Portuguese Constitution does not allow it. I observe that the monarchist tendency in people is increasing over time.

 

[Domhangairt]

Portugese monarchy

The present pretender, Dom Duarte Pio descends in the male line from Dom Afonso Henriques- the Portuguese count who founded the Kingdom of Portugal and who first established a Portuguese nation. His descendants built the Portuguese nation state, became pioneers of naval exploration, and liberated Portugal from 80 years of Spanish rule. Republicans need to realize that without the Portuguese royal house, Portugal as a nation state would not exist.

The last king, Dom Manoel II was ousted in a coup because his branch of the family was Saxon-German- and unpopular in Lisbon, and surrounding urban areas. The Republic was corrupt and chaotic, followed by decades of Dictatorship under Salazar. Had the Miguelist line of the true Portuguse royal house of Braganza remained on the Throne, the Revolution of 1910 might never have happened.

In recent years, the Presidency has been fraught with controversy- many believe a non-party political monarch would make a better Head of State. The problem is Portugal has been so long without a monarchy- that most Portuguese donot even understand how it would work, and have no appreciation of the value of constitutional moanrchy as it is practiced in Spain and the Netherlands.

Restoration is only possible after long campaign of information and contact with ordinary people. Even then, chances are slim.

 

[Cory]

Are there serious polls regarding Monarchy and Republic?

 

[julliette]

No I don't think so. But there was a poll some time ago saying the number of monarchists were more or less the same than the number of republicans and the rest of the people simple didn't care as Lusa_Monarquia said. I've heard many monarchists talking about this poll but I never saw it. Maybe someone can find it...

 

[LadyRohan]

As with any serious restoration considerations, it will in Portugal, like in any other country, be a matter of well organized publicity, hard work from the Royals, tieing bonds with important political aspects of society and generally raising awareness of their own person, the nations history and the advantages of monarchy.
15% support for the monarchy is quite strong in a 100-year old republic, and the Duke of Braganza is quite a familiar figure in Portugal, respected by politicians. If he were to seriously seek a restoration for his family, it would mean getting himself out there, alongside his family and heirs in particular, and see the numbers rise with hard work done.
The Duke said himself in an interview in 2007, that 'a King is always a better head of state than a president'.
Obviously, a monarchist would agree from the get-go, but the job is to instill that sentence in the heads of the average Portuguese person.
Incidentally, I was in Portugal 2 years ago, and stayed with an extended family of friends for a few weeks. One night across the dinnertable I raised the issue of the past and future of Portugal, and after a lively debate, not a single one of them wanted to keep the republic.
The old monarchy is gone, but the Royal Family isn't.
In modern days, the advantages of constitutional monarchies, especially in Europe, is not a hard thing to sell. It's actually quite easy.

 

[Cory]

Al the royalists support Don Duarte in Portugal?

 

[jonc93]

I would say most of them do, but there is a small radical group that supports Rosario Poidimani. In the 70'a a women who named herself Maria Pia of Saxe Coburg Gotha claimed to be King Carlos' illegitimate daughter, she then choose Mr. Poidimani as her successor. He tries to use the Portuguese Constitution against Duarte because it says all Successors of D. Miguel have no rights to the throne of Portugal and can not enter Portugal. That law was repealed, although by the republic, it still was repealed. And King Manuel, when he knew he would have no Heirs signed a pact with Duarte Pio's father, Duarte Nuno, claiming him to be his Heir. If Mr. Poidimani studied the Constitution from the monarchy he would find that illegitimate children can not succeed to the throne, he claims King Carlos legitimized Maria Pia, but if he studied the same Constitution again, he would see that the King can not just Legitimize a child, the only way to Legitimize the child is if the parents where to marry, which the King did not, mostly because Maria Pia was not his daughter. So I would say most serious monarchists support Dom Duarte, as does the government, they gave him and his family Diplomatic Passports with their titles on them and invite them to state events.

 

[Cory]

What about the Duke of Lule'?

 

[julliette]

^^ About the Duke the Loulé, it says in wikipedia more or less this:

Some argue that the Dukes of Loulé are the legitimate heirs to the throne of Portugal because they are descendents of D. Ana de Jesus Maria de Bragança, daughter of king D. João VI and D. Carlota Joaquina. Those who defend it are a minority whitin the portuguese monarchists, as one can see by the oficial positions of Causa Real, a federation of Reais Associações. Reais Associações are associations of monarchists from all over the country who usually defend that D. Duarte is the legitimate heir.
The Dukes of Loulé have never expressed publicly their clame to the throne but they also never denied it. When the head of a house dies, it is tradition to ask the king (the head of the royal house) to confirm the title to the family (kind of symbolic: the new duke renews the votes of the family to serve the king). That would have to be asked to D. Duarte. The dukes of Loulé refused to do it, as it would be a confirmation that they acept D. Duarte has the head of the royal house. That was seen as a signal of their clame to the throne. D. Filipe Folque de Mendoça was the president of Real Associação de Lisboa, and during that time he expressed his belief that his brother, the current duke, is the heir to the throne.

 

[Ultramare]

The monarchism is definitively stronger in Portugal than in Brazil. D. Edward - or Duarte - is a quite active claimant, and he´s known as celebrity there, while his brazilian counterparts aren´t so widely recognized.

 

[jonc93]

Yes, I would have to say it's true, Dom Duarte is recognized a lot in Portugal and featured on TV and magazines quite a lot. His whole wedding was covered live by the Portuguese Public TV Channel as well. As for Duarte's Brazilian relatives, D. Pedro Gastao was more well known then D. Luis is, mosty because he was the Brother of the Countess of Paris and the Duchess of Braganca, and the Countess of Barcelona was his sister in law. D. Luis never married and seems to be more secluded, in comparison to Duarte who is always out and about representing many good causes.

 

[Cory]

The Royalist Party is in favour of Don Duarte?

 

[julliette]

^^ If you're talking about PPM (Partido Popular Monárquico), the only monarchist party I know, I think it's kind of ambiguous... I never heard the party supported oficially any of the claimant.
When it was founded, its most prominent figure was Gonçalo Ribeiro Teles, who, I think, supports D. Duarte. Then in the early 2000s the party elected two members of the parliament (not by itself but going to elections in the lists of PSD, one of the two main parties). One of those elected member was Nuno da Câmara Pereira. I think he used to have a good relationship with D. Duarte and supported him. But then I heard that D.Duarte forbided him to used the title D.. As a kind of revenge, the Câmara Pereiras started to oppose D. Duarte, kind of support the duke of Loulé and even travelled to Italy to meet Rosario Poidimani. When PSD changed its leader and there were new elections, the members of PPM were no longer in the party lists, which made it impossible for PPM to elected someone. Since then, PPM changed its leader as well, and I think Nuno da Câmara Pereira even left the party. With the new leader, the PPM is definetely closer to D. Duarte and Causa Real but I'm not sure if it is an oficial support.

 

[Ultramare]

@jonc: HI&RH D. Luiz - Or Louis - has two big problems:

1-He´s a very ill man: At the childhood, he lost the motion of a leg and couldn´t even go to her mother burial - He had a big crisis.
2-HI&RH D. Luiz, as his brother D. Bertrand is member of a secret society called "Evergreen". The marriage isn´t allowed among them. it´s a group closed to the "catholic" brazilian elite. I could make a post about them...

 

[jonc93]

Interesting I did not know about the first one, but I did hear of the second one before, just never the name of the society. He seems to take his duties very seriously but doesn't seem to be well known, but since you are from Brazil, you can tell us is he well known amongst the people?

 

[Cory]

There is no recent poll about how many people are in favour of Monarchy in Portugal?

 

[Ultramare]

@jonc93: Indeed, he´s not very known, but many brazilian are "cryptomonarchists": They like a thing which don´t know. The Brazil is a LARGE country, and by one hundred of years even speaking on monarcy was forbidden: It was a political crime. Many Peter II´s portraits were destroyed to do the monarchy looks like old. There´s a hope, but there are many things to do.

PS: Please forgive my bad english.

 

[jonc93]

Cory, no there is not, probably because most people are silent sympathizes who do not say they are monarchists because in Portugal that's almost considered wrong amongst many people. I would say much less than a third are monarchists.

 

[Cory]

I suppose Don Duarte is quite popular anyway.

 

[fancatt]

Similar to what is happening in Romania but on a smaller scale, of course, there are those who express the desire to return to the monarchy. And to have D. Duarte Pio as the King of Portugal:

Portugal precisa de um Rei - Expresso.pt

Manifesto:

In this page there are some links:

http://causamonarquica.com/2012/02/01/imprensa-manifesto-apela-a-uma-monarquia-em-portugal/

 

[DavidS.]

@Cory: no... unfortunately there isn't...

Anyways, I wanted to share with you an experience which could serve the Portuguese Monarchists.

I'm 22 years old - and I'm currently studying in the university. In my class, there are, perhaps, 50 people. From those 50 people - 5 guys (including me) are staunch Monarchists - and each one of us have different perspectives. Basically, one of us supports an absolute Monarchy; the other one refuses all protocol involving the Catholic Church; and the other three (me included) defend the restoration of a Constitutional Monarchy with the Royal Family attached to the necessary Roman Catholic traditions that are common to the Portuguese people.

I had the opportunity to talk with some guys from our class during lunchtime, and what I observed during our conversations was an absolute ignorance about what was the Monarchy and what it stands for or what are the duties and advantages of having a Monarchy.

I had one friend who got the point of saying: "Why do you want a King? To walk around with a wig and spend our money building palaces?" - and the worst of it all is that he wasn't joking. After I explained them what the Monarchy is and what it stands for - obviously personified in the head of the Royal Family - a crushing majority of my colleages said they wouldn't mind a Monarchy (but there needed to be a Parliament).

» The Portuguese Monarchist movement keeps growing - year after year - the only problem is that you have Monarchists are too ashamed to say they are Monarchists (and I honestly don't know why). If there are people who pride themselves of ideals such as Communism, why can't we take pride in a perfectly fine and democratic institution like the Monarchy?

» Other problem is that people are very ignorant about the roles of a King, of a Royal Family, of what is the Monarchy. And this is one is the worst. And don't get me wrong... the Republic is as unknown to the Portuguese as it is the Monarchy.

The Monarchy can and will only be RESTORED by the will of the people. We will not take an example out of the Republic, and murder our Chief-of-State and his son; and impose our ideals through the force of arms. We need to talk to people through intelligence, and trying to make them see that the Monarchy is part of the solution to Portugal and the Portuguese. It's a hard and long path still (at least for Portugal) - but I do think that we can get there.

I apologize for the long post... when I start talking about Monarchies - you can't get me to stop (lol).

 

[tdarlene]

I definitely agree with you DavidS. When I was in university, and I was in political science and international relations where you study different types of government and so on, it was amazing for me seeing how many of my colleagues studying such thing as democracy and especially european countries were so misinformed about what is a monarchy nowadays, especially in a democratic country, mostly of them still thing that monarchy means absolute monarchy of about 300 years, or monarchies of autocratic countries, and this is a general way of thinking of the people, especially because of the way monarchy is taught at school, in a very misconception way, only when you reach a higher level of education and have a lot of information is when you can think about it, and even that way is difficult because here in Portugal we don't have the serious media talking what it really is the difference of having a monarch or a president, we see royals in the media but mostly in pink press that only cares for the 'glamour' and scandals, and that's the misconception that people think what monarchy is and means.

 

[Cory]

We must admit a reality: the portugese royalists are much more than ever...

 

[julliette]

^^ It's true, Cory, They are more than ever. I'm actually quite impressed by how many monarchists I've met since I came to study in Lisbon for university but as said above they still seem a bit shy to "come out" and say out loud they support a monarchy. Anyway things are improving in that department...

It's said but true how many people have fool ideas about monarchies. I think is something people in Portugal don't even stop to think about (monarchy vs republic). We learn a version of the facts in history classes during school age. A version that sometimes even seems to support that idea of republic=democracy. Most people have that idea from school and then assume that for the rest of their lives and don't even question it. I believe that if you ask people in Portugal randomly on the streets if they would like to live in a monarchy they would answer no, but most of these people would only say that because they never stoped to think about that.
I believe that there are only a few republicans in this country. The majority of the people are a bit ignorant (no offense here) in these issues but I feel they are quite receptive about the monarchy when you explain them how modern and constitutional monarchies work nowadays and specially give examples of european monarchies, that's the point when they realize how full their ideas (republic=democracy) are.
That's why I think monarchists main role nowadays (and I think they would gain a lot of points with it) should be "clean" these fool ideas from people's minds. Explain what a monarchy is, what it means, how it works in modern and democratic countries, give examples, such as the scandinanvian, the netherlands. And in this point Causa Real, the main association of monarchists as a lot of work to do internally and start to think about a reorganization of its role, how it comunicates with people, not only with those already interested in the monarchy but specially those who have no conection at all with this ideal.
But even if Causa Real doesn't do that, which is a pitty, monarchists in Portugal should stop being shy. I think they are starting to stop it a bit, namely with many bloggers who are active supporters of the monarchy, talk many times about it in their blogs and with this promote a discussion even if it only stays in the blog's world.

 

[Cory]

This royalist Manifesto is translated to English too?

 

[fearghas]

One thing that will always work against a monarchy in a democratic country is that the position is decided by birth. In a democracy people are taught that they could be anyone, a president for instance, but if I'm born into the wrong family I can never be King. In a democracy the head of state should be chosen by the people.
That is why monarchy is on the outer at the moment. And I think monarchists who also believe in democracy will always struggle with this. Hence why you have the different ty[es of monarchists that you mentioned.