In the circumstance of the fiftieth anniversary, the 25th of November once again divides opinions and political parties. The division is not dichotomous. Among socialists, after the tenth anniversary of Geringonça’s governing experience, the date is managed with moderation. It is true that we must vindicate the legacy of Mário Soares during the Hot Summer, giving him the monopoly on confronting the extreme left. But it is also necessary not to be offended, guaranteeing the myth of April and its cult. The 25th of April is an archetypal symbol of the democratic dawn. And symbols are not shareable. Thus, socialists unreservedly assume that it was in April that democracy had its “complete and clean opening day”, although they admit, albeit reluctantly, celebrations in November.
Precisely because the issue is symbolic, both on the right and on the extreme left, November raises less ambiguity. For radical leftists, the date will always be a source of genuine consternation. Having good musical taste, it will certainly remind them of the second version of Tanto Mar, when Chico Buarque’s voice begins a nostalgic lament: «your party has already withered, man, but they certainly forgot a seed in some corner of the garden». As for the communists, little given to changing the lyrics of the song, it is just a question of refusing counter-revolutionary whitewashing: as long as they remain in parliament they will not participate in the event. Finally, and by contrast, the right decided to get involved in the festivities, promoting an imitation of the parliamentary session dedicated to the 25th of April. It is not known by what criteria, the bright red carnations were replaced by more discreet white roses. These are arrangements without symbolic force, but they are worth the aesthetic improvement.
For all this, the left is right to accuse November 25th of being a divisive date. And truth. There will always be those who find in it the odious occasion when, sang José Mário Branco, «the party was ruined and the month of November took its revenge». And there will always be those who saw the emergence of true democracy, when, once the leftist drunkenness had been overcome, the bearded soldiers returned to their barracks and the tired people returned to normal life. Given such disparity in judgments, is the date really worth celebrating? Will it make sense to celebrate it fifty years later? The answer may require considering an undervalued detail: November 25th happened fifteen days after Angola’s independence and would not have happened without it.
The Communist Party had then completed its mission, handing over Portuguese Africa to international communism. After Guinea, Mozambique had also been abandoned to the same fate, when a decree published on June 24, the eve of its independence, stripped countless Africans of their Portuguese citizenship and allowed them to be thrown in front of the guerrilla firing squads. Therefore, when, in November, Portugal freed itself from the ongoing revolution, freeing itself from sanitation and arbitrariness, persecution and political arrests, torture, simulated shootings and other abuses, it did not free itself from the stain and shame. It returned to as much normality as possible, but no one won. «We lost everyone», said a character in the novel November by Jaime Nogueira Pinto. This is why – and not because it is a divisive date – that November does not, in fact, deserve major celebrations.
Should we still celebrate it, doing so to remember the relief that the end of the revolutionary madness represented? Perhaps. Why not? It doesn’t hurt.