Well, I was 7 back then, and I remember clearly getting out around 9am and walking to school only to get there and finding it closed. I went back home, somewhat happy for not having school that day.

Elsewhere in Lisbon, a military coup led by a group of captains had started to overthrow the dictatorship that had ruled Portugal for the last 48 years.

We like more diaries about holidays and history of European countries, especially if they are so uplifting as the Carnation Revolution. Promoted & slightly edited by DoDo

Last week came the announcement that a raise of 15% on the price of electricity was due to home consumers, industry having its own tariffs also due to raise, but less. This raise was justified by the fact that 10 years ago during the previous Socialist Government lead by António Guterres, a dispatch was made to keep electricity raises no bigger than inflation. Apparently this caused in recent years a serious disconnect between consumer prices and production prices.
So, a raise of 15% was in order to correct the deficit over the next 6 years or so.

From the diaries ~ whataboutbob

Disclaimer: Please bear in mind I'm little more than a concerned citizen, with no political affiliation, and no special insights or background on politics. So take it as the personal view it is, although based on the facts as I know them.

The current composition of the portuguese parliament comprises, from right to left:

CDS - This is the most right mainstream party. It includes two major sorts of right wing though: Hardcore neo-liberals and democratic Christians. It's a small party with 12 seats. It represents more or less 5-10% of the electorate.

PSD - This is one of the two major parties in Portuguese politics. It has several currents inside, from neo-liberal to social democrats as normally understood  here in ET.

PS - This is the socialist party, currently in absolute majority, and the government. In principle, social democrats, aligned with the social democratic parties in the EP, etc.

BE - This is the Left Block. This party originated from the merging of several small left wing parties and a citizens initiative from the early nineties that looked for a new left that would redefine itself to be more modern.

PCP - This is THE communist party. It's probably the last hardcore communist party in western Europe. The legacy of it's historical leader is still held to the letter, insider reformers were driven out. It holds 12 seats, but since it always runs with the Green party, that elects 2 seats but has no real base, in practice PCP is worth 14 seats.

From the front page - whataboutbob