National Union (Portugal)

Portugal

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Flag of the National Union

The National Union (Portuguese: União Nacional^[1]) was the only legal political party in Portugal for most^[2] of the period of the Estado Novo, a right-wing dictatorship dominated by António de Oliveira Salazar.

The organization was founded in 1930 during the National Dictatorship period of 1928-33. Officially it was not a political party, but an "organisation of unity of all the Portuguese". The party won all seats in elections to the Portuguese National Assembly from 1934 to 1973.^[3] In 1970 – two years after Salazar had been replaced as leader by Marcello Caetano – the name of the party was altered to Acção Nacional Popular (People's National Action), and subsequent to Salazar's retirement faced formal competition in the 1969 election, nevertheless winning all constituencies in a landslide.^[4]

See also

• Mocidade Portuguesa, the Estado Novo's youth organization
• Portuguese Legion, the Estado Novo's paramilitary organization

Footnotes

1. ^ Portuguese pronunciation: [uniˈɐ̃w̃ nɐsiuˈnaɫ]
2. ^ The opposition Movement of Democratic Unity was legal in 1945-48.
3. ^ Opposition were allowed supervised participation after 1945 but retired prematurely in the 1945 and 1973 elections.
4. ^ http://www.ipu.org/parline-e/reports/arc/PORTUGAL_1969_E.PDF