Armindo Abreu: how did you experience April 25, 1974?

Lawyer, Armindo Abreu, 71 years old, was President of the Municipal Assembly and the Municipal Council of Amarante. Here is his testimony about the April Revolution.

The 25th of April “caught me” in Coimbra, on the second day of the Law Course of 72/77. At the time, I benefited from the postponement of incorporation into the Army, which was legally granted to me until the completion of the course, as long as I achieved normal results, that is, without “failures”. Otherwise, the 25th of April would have found me somewhere in the war in one of the then Portuguese colonies, or, perhaps, abroad.

At the time, I already had enough information to be clearly aware of the injustice of the war, its short-term unsustainability and the inequity and international isolation of the regime.

Above all, the news I had from my friends who, in the meantime, completed their military service in the colonial war, the student struggles of the sixties and European emigration, on the one hand, and my own experience and some historical knowledge I had, on the other hand, on the other, they had long ago formed the conviction in me that I live in a backward country, with shameful levels of poverty and illiteracy, with an authoritarian regime and that the independence of the colonies was inexorable.

Like the overwhelming majority of young people of my generation, I aspired to the end of the war, with the independence of the Colonies, and to live in a free, equal and developed country. Therefore, I lived the 25th of April intensely, with youthful enthusiasm and commitment to contribute to the construction of a new Portugal, which I understood to be only possible under a regime of representative democracy, which has been consolidated.

After the short period of celebration and euphoria at general student meetings (RGAs, in “free singing” shows, on the first 1st of May, “…etc….etc.) I completed the second year of Law that year and decided I became a voluntary student, returning to Amarante, where I combined my student activity with teaching and local politics. In fact, in the summer of 74, I was invited and accepted to be president of the Administrative Commission of the Parish of Mancelos until the first local elections, which took place in December 1976, I was a candidate for the Chamber and I was a teacher until I completed the course. From then on, I dedicated myself full-time to my internship to become a lawyer, which I started with the conviction that it would be my professional activity until I retired, which did not happen, as is known. But I never gave up on making my contribution, even if modest, to the affirmation of the ideals of April, those that were fulfilled (decolonization and democracy) and the third (development) that continues to be fulfilled and that no one, of right conscience, , you can deny it, despite the difficulties, advances and setbacks.

Long live the 25th of April…. Ever!