The Federal Republic of Germany and the Portuguese Transition to Democracy (1974-1976)

Abstract

The Portuguese transition to democracy was the first in the third wave of democratization, which would reach not only Greece and Spain (in 1974 and 1975), but also Latin America (in the mid-1980s) and Eastern Europe (at the beginning of the 1990s).1 Because of its unexpectedness, the Portuguese democratization caught the attention of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). Bonn’s foreign policy in this period was focused on détente, as a way of achieving the unification of the country. The main concern regarding the Western bloc was the stability, reinforcement and future enlargement of the European Economic Community (EEC). The expected scenario for the Iberian Peninsula was the future democratization of Spain (as general Franco was ill), which was expected to “contaminate” the Portuguese dictatorship. However, the Portuguese revolution inverted this prediction.