Portugal’s leader in search for stability

Press, 28 July 1976, Page 16

Portugal’s leader in search for stability

General Antonio Ramalhc Eanes had few words o comfort to offer the Porte guese after taking over hi country’s Presidency la.week. What he did promise the; was that Portugal would nc longer be a “provisions country.” A first step away from arbitary confusion was the invitation to Dr Mario Soares, the Socialist leader, to become .Prime Minister. The minority Cabinet which Dr Soares is putting together will be the first properly constituted govern nient Portugal has seen in the 26 months since the April 25 coup which overthrew the old dictatorship. Yet few of the signs attending its birth are any more auspicious than those that surrounded the arrival of its six, rather sickly, provisional predecessors. Dr Soares had pledged early action to begin the long and difficult housecleaning Portugal needs — and President Eanes has promised to use his powers as head of State to ensure that the nrocess goes off smoothly. Although the new constitution leaves it to the Government to decide the nuts and bolts of policy, Mr Eanes referred ip his inauguration speech to the areas which would be receiving close and early attention. He did not need to mention that they were all areas which fhe Communists and other Left-wing groups bad used as power bases to launch their own offensives these past two years. The sight of Communist deputies sitting on their

lands while all around them thundered their noisy approal was proof enough that ■he President’s swearing-in nessage had gone home. First and foremost among he tasks facing the new retime — and the SoaresEanes combination adds up to precisely this after the ack of direction of the past — will be to restore order to an economy which is threatened not so much with collapse as with evaporation Dr Soares has promised early measures to trim the powers of the Communist led industrial unions. Mr Eanes echoed this when he told workers that the time had come to start producing again and warned them against "Utopian illusions" and demagogy. The Communists, piqued by the snub administered by the Socialists to their call for a majority "government of the Left”,’ have already indicated they do not intend to release their industrial grip easily and a hot autumn is promised as a number of key wage negotiations come round. Apart from the straightforward job of restoring confidence to the economy, the Scares Government is likely to try to weed out Communists from key posi tions within the civil service and within the education system. Mr Eanes recently referred to the need for an “efficient” civil service and to the “lamentable” spectacle of an educational system which squandered the coun try’s future human resources. The new President’s words, accompanied by a warning that the press, too, will nave to obey the new rules, provided a stark contrast to the easy-going po-

storing that once symbolised the Portuguese rexo.ution. Neither he nor his Prim* Minist-T has disguised his belief that only through re <pect f»>’ authority will the Portuguese achieve a subi» democracy. How far Liewill have to impose this author:!;. to make their point remains to be seen. Dr Soares has had ar early introduction to the problems he will face if he is to establish his Government's credibiliu None of the pohtica heavyweights in the Socialist Party was willing tr accept the key ministries of finance. economic co ordination and labour. Two military men in his Government — holding the interior and defence portfolios — will provide a constant reminder to the new Prime Minister that the armed forces retain consid enable say in Portuguese politics. A sizable bloc or. the Left-wing of the Socialist Party remains sceptical cf the party’s wholehearted backing for Mr Eanes. _ li still hankers for some kind of an agreement with the Communists in the National Assembly rather than th* understanding with the two parties, to the Right — the Popular Democrats and th« Centre Democrats — upon, which Dr Soares will have to rely to push through legislation Mr Eane' said in his tr augural address that 'he lar two veins had left Portugal a poorer but a wisei country. \o on* would dispute the truth of the first part of the statement Establishing the truth of the second part is now up to the tacitm ■ general and his ebullient civilian ally. O.F.N' -