Francisco Sá Carneiro

Sá Carneiro was born in Vitória, Porto, the fifth of the eight children{{cite AV media|title= Francisco Sá Carneiro, um Documento – Parte I|trans-title= Francisco Sá Carneiro, a Document – Part I|type= Documentary|language= pt|url= https://arquivos.rtp.pt/conteudos/francisco-sa-carneiro-um-documento-parte-i/|time= 2:29 – 2:35|quote= Francisco was the fifth of eight siblings.}} of lawyer José Gualberto Chaves Marques de Sá Carneiro (1897–1978) and Maria Francisca Judite Pinto da Costa Leite (1908–1989) of the Counts of Lumbrales in Spain.{{citation needed|date=September 2018}}

A lawyer by training, Sá Carneiro became a member of the National Assembly in 1969{{cite web|title=Index Sa|url=http://www.rulers.org/indexs1.html|publisher=Rulers|access-date=16 June 2013}} and, in turn, one of the leaders of the "Liberal Wing" (Ala Liberal) which attempted to work for the gradual transformation of Marcelo Caetano's dictatorship into a Western European liberal democracy.

In May 1974, a month after the Carnation Revolution, Sá Carneiro founded the Popular Democratic Party (PPD), together with Francisco Pinto Balsemão, Joaquim Magalhães Mota, Carlos Mota Pinto, João Bosco Mota Amaral, Alberto João Jardim, António Barbosa de Melo and António Marques Mendes, and became its secretary-general. The PPD was soon renamed the Social Democratic Party (PSD); despite Sá Carneiro's original claims to be leading a left-of-centre party, he and the party soon drifted to the right, becoming the country's main centre-right force. He was minister without portfolio in a number of provisional governments, and was elected as a deputy to the Constitutional Assembly the next year.

In 1976, he was elected to the Assembly of the Republic. In November 1977, he resigned his office as president of the party, only to be reelected to that office the next year.

In the general election of late 1979, he led the Democratic Alliance, a coalition of his Social Democratic Party, the right-wing Democratic and Social Centre Party, and two smaller parties, to victory. The Alliance polled 45.2 percent of the popular vote and gained 128 of the 250 seats in the Assembly of the Republic; 75 of these were from the PSD. President António Ramalho Eanes subsequently called on him to form a government on 3 January 1980, and formed Portugal's first majority government since the Carnation Revolution of 1974. In a second general election held in October that year, the Democratic Alliance increased its majority. The Alliance received 47.2 percent of the popular vote and 134 seats, 82 of them from the PSD. Sá Carneiro's triumph appeared to augur well for the presidential election two months later, in which Sá Carneiro was supporting António Soares Carneiro (no relation).

{{main|1980 Camarate air crash}}

File:Francisco.de.Sa.Carneiro.by.Patrick.Swift.1980.jpg, 1980; Following his election Sá Carneiro commissioned Swift to paint his portrait]]

His victory was short-lived, however. On 4 December 1980, while on his way to a presidential election rally in Porto, the Cessna 421 he was on crashed into a building in Camarate, Loures, soon after takeoff from Lisbon Airport. Eyewitnesses claimed they saw pieces falling from the plane just moments after it took off. Rumours have continued to fuel conspiracy theories that the crash was in fact an assassination, but no firm evidence has come to light. There were even different theories as to who might have been the target of such an assassination, as Francisco de Sá Carneiro was travelling with the Defence Minister, Adelino Amaro da Costa, who had said he had documents relating to the October surprise conspiracy theory and was planning on taking them to the United Nations General Assembly. A parliamentary inquiry said in 2004 that there was evidence of a bomb in the aircraft,Associated Press, 6 December 2004, [https://web.archive.org/web/20131105214731/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-103149765.html New tests indicate sabotage in 1980 air crash that killed Portuguese PM][http://www.aero-news.net/annticker.cfm?do=main.textpost&id=21fd5069-84f1-42b1-8a74-744d47ee6ee2 "Investigative Commission: 1980 Portugal Crash Was Sabotage"]. after a 1995 inquiry had concluded there was evidence of sabotage.David Elsner, Chicago Tribune, 8 October 1995, [https://www.chicagotribune.com/1995/10/08/premiers-body-exhumed-in-inquiry/ Premier's Body Exhumed In Inquiry]

Dependent to a considerable extent on Sá Carneiro's personal popularity, the Democratic Alliance was unable to maintain its momentum in the wake of his death. Faced with a national crisis, the public rallied behind the incumbent president, António Ramalho Eanes, who easily defeated the Alliance candidate in the presidential election a few days later.

The Pedra Rubras airport where Sá Carneiro was heading has been named after him as Francisco de Sá Carneiro Airport, in 1990, despite objections{{by whom|date=October 2013}} that it would be in bad taste to name an airport after someone who died in a plane crash.

He was married on 13 May 1957, in Miragaia, Porto, to Isabel Maria Ferreira Nunes de Matos (1 October 1936, Miragaia, Porto), and had five children:

• Francisco Nunes de Matos de Sá Carneiro (12 March 1958, Cedofeita, Porto), unmarried and without issue
• Isabel Maria Nunes de Matos de Sá Carneiro (7 July 1959, Cedofeita, Porto), unmarried and without issue
• Maria Teresa Nunes de Matos de Sá Carneiro (11 August 1961, Cedofeita, Porto), had two sons:
• Francisco de Sá Carneiro e Nogueira (1986, Santo Ildefonso, Porto)
• Lourenço de Sá Carneiro e Nogueira (1988, Santo Ildefonso, Porto)
• José Nunes de Matos de Sá Carneiro (1 April 1963, Cedofeita, Porto), married on 8 September 1991, in Luso, Mealhada, Isabel Maria Guedes de Macedo Girão (25 January 1965, Ramalde, Porto), and had an only daughter:
• Inês de Macedo Girão de Sá Carneiro (21 March 1992, Santo Ildefonso, Porto)
• Pedro Nunes de Matos de Sá Carneiro (12 September 1964, Cedofeita, Porto), married to Maria Benedita de Matos Chaves Pinheiro Torres (28 May 1967), of the Barons of Torre de Pero Palha, and had an only daughter:
• Maria Teresa Pinheiro Torres de Sá Carneiro (17 August 2000, Porto)

Later in life he lived together with Snu Abecassis, who died in the same accident as Sá Carneiro.

Sá Carneiro started his political life in the youth of the Acção Católica (the Portuguese Catholic Action), being his first activity in civic life to write a letter to Marcelo Caetano requesting the return of the António Ferreira Gomes, the exiled pro-democracy bishop of Oporto.{{YouTube|id=HZ7TpQs0bsE#t=1m44s|title=Official PDP/SDP Sá Carneiro's death 25th Anniversary documentary II}}, 1:44 – 1:58 He probably had links with the Catholic syndicalist organizations and Christian socialism in general. He was very influenced by Catholic personalism{{cite web|url=http://www.tsdnacional.com/pdf/mocao-sn.pdf |title=X CONGRESSO da TSD – Trabalhadores Social Democratas (Social Democratic Workers) |access-date=7 January 2008 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041021093509/http://www.tsdnacional.com/pdf/mocao-sn.pdf |archive-date=21 October 2004 }} (Portuguese), p. 7: «O sindicalismo que defendemos e procuramos praticar tem esta matriz social democrata e personalista. A sociedade que queremos ajudar a construir tem neste pensamento os seus alicerces. (...) Como pensou e defendeu Francisco Sá Carneiro.» [«The syndicalism we defend and try to practice has this social democratic and personalist matrix. The society that we want to help to build has in this thought its foundations. (...) As thought and defended Francisco Sá Carneiro.»] and humanism (especially its Christian version).

Sá Carneiro tried to adapt the social-democratic ideas of the likes of Eduard Bernstein and the post-1945 SPD to the cultural context of Portugal{{cite web |url=http://www.tsdnacional.com/pdf/mocao-sn.pdf |title=X CONGRESSO da TSD |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041021093509/http://www.tsdnacional.com/pdf/mocao-sn.pdf |archive-date=21 October 2004 }} p. 6: «Sá Carneiro sabia que não há modelos de ideário político que se transponham mecanicamente de umas sociedades para as outras. Foi assim que, embora tomando em consideração o pensamento social democrata reformista de teóricos da Europa germânica e anglo-saxónica, concebeu um projecto de social democracia adaptado à idiossincrasia do povo português e à sua tradição histórica, tão marcada de experiência personalista.» («Sá Carneiro knew that there were not models of political ideals that transposed mechanically from some societies for the others. It was like this that, though taking in consideration the social democratic Reformist thought of the theoreticians of Germanic and Anglo-Saxon Europe, conceived a social democracy project adapted to the idiosyncrasy of the Portuguese people and to its historical tradition, so marked by the personalist experience.») and its traditionally Catholic society. The Godesberg Program had a very important influence in his social democratic thought as it became the model for his party and its cut with Marxist socialism.

Despite having an anti-collectivist and anti-statist party with an emphasis on personal rights and duties that was responsible for privatizing the industrial sectors nationalized during the revolutionary period,{{YouTube|id=TwwfAZaLPSk#t=1m35s|title=Official PDP/SDP Sá Carneiro's death 25th Anniversary documentary II}}, 1:35 – 1:35 he increased social spending during his term,{{YouTube|id=TwwfAZaLPSk#t=1m56s|title=Official PDP/SDP Sá Carneiro's death 25th Anniversary documentary II}}, 1:56 – 2:02 supported land reform and its redistribution in Alentejo{{YouTube|id=TwwfAZaLPSk#t=1m36s|title=Official PDP/SDP Sá Carneiro's death 25th Anniversary documentary II}}, 1:36 – 1:44 and he was proud that his party had been adopted by the working, middle-class blue-collar worker and middle-low class workers and that his party defended "the construction of a socialist society in liberty".{{YouTube|id=aRJDgooW4MI#t=1m08s|title=Popularist constants John Dewey and Francisco Sá Carneiro, 1:08 – 1:39}} Due to all these specificities, he called his party's ideology "Portuguese Social Democracy".

He was recognized as populist by supporters{{cite web|url=https://www.facebook.com/photo_search.php?oid=77952785435&view=user#/photo.php?pid=30194690&op=1&o=user&view=user&subj=77952785435&aid=-1&oid=77952785435&id=1434575431|title=Reformist Centre Popular Pan-National photos|website=Facebook }}{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} (English) and opponents,{{cite web|url=https://31daarmada.blogs.sapo.pt/1974497.html|title=Textos de Francisco Sá Carneiro (Texts of Francisco Sá Carneiro), 31 da Armada blog}} (Portuguese), eleventh comment: «Sá Carneiro, seria hoje um populista como Santana Lopes ou pior ainda... !! (João Jardim... !)» («Sá Carneiro, would be today a populist like Santana Lopes or even worse...!! (João Jardim...!)») as well as neutral analysts.{{cite web|url=http://oam0907.wordpress.com/2007/09/30/portugal-7/|title=O Populismo Laranja (The Orange Populism)|date=30 September 2007 }} (Portuguese), o António Maria blog, third paragraph: «Em primeiro lugar, porque a matriz ideológica e social do PPD-PSD é geneticamente populista, na modulação muito própria que lhe foi dada desde o início por Francisco Sá Carneiro» ("In the first place, because the ideological and social matrix of the PDP-SDP is genetically populist, in the very specific modulation that was given to it since the beginning by Francisco Sá Carneiro")

Sá Carneiro was the author of various works, among them:

• Uma Tentativa de Participação Política (An Attempt of Political Participation) (1973)
• Por uma Social-Democracia Portuguesa (For a Portuguese Social Democracy) (1975)
• Poder Civil; Autoridade Democrática e Social-Democracia (Civilian Power; Democratic Authority and Social Democracy (1975)
• Uma Constituição para os Anos 80: Contributo para um Projecto de Revisão (A Constitution for the 1980s: Contribution for a Project of Revision) (1979).

{{Main|1975 Portuguese Constituent Assembly election}}

{{election table|title=Ballot: 25 April 1975}}

|-

! colspan="2" | Party

! Candidate

! Votes

! align="center" style="width: 50px"|%

! align="center" style="width: 50px"|Seats

|-

| style="background:{{party color|Socialist Party (Portugal)}};"|

| align="left"|PS

| align=left |Mário Soares || 2,162,972 || 37.9 || 116

|-

| style="background:{{party color|Social Democratic Party (Portugal)}};"|

| align="left"|PPD

| align=left |Francisco Sá Carneiro || 1,507,282 || 26.4 || 81

|-

| style="background:{{party color|Unitary Democratic Coalition}};"|

| align="left"| PCP

| align=left |Álvaro Cunhal || 711,935 || 12.5 || 30

|-

| style="background:{{party color|CDS – People's Party}};"|

| align="left"| CDS

| align=left |Diogo Freitas do Amaral || 434,879 || 7.6 || 16

|-

| style="background:darkred;"|

| align="left"| MDP/CDE

| align=left |Francisco Pereira de Moura || 236,318 || 4.1 || 5

|-

| style="background:red;"|

| align="left"| FSP

| align=left |Manuel Serra || 66,307 || 1.2 || 0

|-

| style="background:red;"|

| align="left"| MES

| align=left |Afonso de Barros || 58,248 || 1.0 || 0

|-

| style="background:white;"|

| colspan="2" align="left"| Other parties

| 137,213 || 2.4 || 2

|-

| colspan="3" align="left"| Blank/Invalid ballots

| 396,675 || 7.0 || –

|- style="background-color:#E9E9E9"

| colspan="3" align="left"| Turnout

| 5,711,829 || 91.66 || 250

|-

| colspan="6" align=left|Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições{{cite web |url=https://www.cne.pt/sites/default/files/dl/resultados_ac_1975.pdf |title=Resultados AC 1975 |work=Comissão Nacional de Eleições |access-date=6 August 2024}}

|}

{{Main|1976 Portuguese legislative election}}

{{election table|title=Ballot: 25 April 1976}}

|-

! colspan="2" | Party

! Candidate

! Votes

! align="center" style="width: 50px"|%

! align="center" style="width: 50px"|Seats

! align="center" style="width: 50px"|+/−

|-

| style="background:{{party color|Socialist Party (Portugal)}};"|

| align="left"|PS

| align=left |Mário Soares || 1,912,921 || 34.9 || 107 || style="color:red;"| –9

|-

| style="background:{{party color|Social Democratic Party (Portugal)}};"|

| align="left"|PPD

| align=left |Francisco Sá Carneiro || 1,335,381 || 24.4 || 73 || style="color:red;"| –8

|-

| style="background:{{party color|CDS – People's Party}};"|

| align="left"| CDS

| align=left |Diogo Freitas do Amaral || 876,007 || 16.0 || 42 || style="color:green;"| +26

|-

| style="background:{{party color|Unitary Democratic Coalition}};"|

| align="left"| PCP

| align=left |Álvaro Cunhal || 788,830 || 14.4 || 40 || style="color:green;"| +10

|-

| style="background:#E2062C;"|

| align="left"| UDP

| align=left |Mário Tomé || 91,690 || 1.7 || 1 || ±0

|-

| style="background:white;"|

| colspan="2" align="left"| Other parties

| 220,936 || 4.0 || 0 || ±0

|-

| colspan="3" align="left"| Blank/Invalid ballots

| 257,696 || 2.7 || – || –

|- style="background-color:#E9E9E9"

| colspan="3" align="left"| Turnout

| 5,483,461 || 83.53 || 263 || style="color:green;"| +13

|-

| colspan="7" align=left|Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições{{cite web |url=https://www.cne.pt/sites/default/files/dl/resultados_ar_1976.pdf |title=Resultados AR 1976 |work=Comissão Nacional de Eleições |access-date=6 August 2024}}

|}

{{election table|title=Ballot: 2 July 1978}}

|- style="background-color:#E9E9E9"

! align="center" colspan=2 style="width: 60px"|Candidate

! align="center" style="width: 50px"|Votes

! align="center" style="width: 50px"|%

|-

|bgcolor={{party color|Social Democratic Party (Portugal)}}|

| align=left | Francisco Sá Carneiro

| align=center |

| align=right | 100.0

|-

|- style="background-color:#E9E9E9"

| colspan=2 style="text-align:left;" | Turnout

| align=right |

| align=center |

|-

| colspan="4" align=left|Source: Congress 1978[https://www.publico.pt/2018/09/09/politica/noticia/de-condicionais-a-asdi-1843214 " De condicionais a ASDI "], Público, 9 September 2018. Retrieved 8 June 2022.

|}

{{Main|1979 Portuguese legislative election}}

{{election table|title=Ballot: 2 December 1979}}

|-

! colspan="2" | Party

! Candidate

! Votes

! align="center" style="width: 50px"|%

! align="center" style="width: 50px"|Seats

! align="center" style="width: 50px"|+/−

|-

| style="background:#2A52BE;"|

| align="left"|AD

| align=left |Francisco Sá Carneiro || 2,719,208 || 45.3 || 128 || style="color:green;"| +13

|-

| style="background:{{party color|Socialist Party (Portugal)}};"|

| align="left"|PS

| align=left |Mário Soares || 1,642,136 || 27.3 || 74 || style="color:red;"| –33

|-

| style="background:{{party color|Unitary Democratic Coalition}};"|

| align="left"| APU

| align=left |Álvaro Cunhal || 1,129,322 || 18.8 || 47 || style="color:green;"| +7

|-

| style="background:#E2062C;"|

| align="left"| UDP

| align=left |Mário Tomé || 130,842 || 2.2 || 1 || ±0

|-

| style="background:darkolivegreen;"|

| align="left"| PDC

| align=left |José Sanches Osório || 72,514 || 1.2 || 0 || ±0

|-

| style="background:white;"|

| colspan="2" align="left"| Other parties

| 149,717 || 2.5 || 0 || ±0

|-

| colspan="3" align="left"| Blank/Invalid ballots

| 163,714 || 2.7 || – || –

|- style="background-color:#E9E9E9"

| colspan="3" align="left"| Turnout

| 6,007,453 || 82.86 || 250 || style="color:red;"| –13

|-

| colspan="7" align=left|Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições{{cite web |url=https://www.cne.pt/sites/default/files/dl/resultados_ar_1979.pdf |title=Resultados AR 1979 |work=Comissão Nacional de Eleições |access-date=6 August 2024}}

|}

{{Main|1980 Portuguese legislative election}}

{{election table|title=Ballot: 5 October 1980}}

|-

! colspan="2" | Party

! Candidate

! Votes

! align="center" style="width: 50px"|%

! align="center" style="width: 50px"|Seats

! align="center" style="width: 50px"|+/−

|-

| style="background:#2A52BE;"|

| align="left"|AD

| align=left |Francisco Sá Carneiro || 2,868,076 || 47.6 || 134 || style="color:green;"| +6

|-

| style="background:{{party color|Socialist Party (Portugal)}};"|

| align="left"|PS

| align=left |Mário Soares || 1,673,279 || 27.8 || 74 || ±0

|-

| style="background:{{party color|Unitary Democratic Coalition}};"|

| align="left"| APU

| align=left |Álvaro Cunhal || 1,009,505 || 16.8 || 41 || style="color:red;"| –6

|-

| style="background:#E2062C;"|

| align="left"| UDP

| align=left |Mário Tomé || 83,204 || 1.4 || 1 || ±0

|-

| style="background:red;"|

| align="left"| POUS

| align=left |Carmelinda Pereira || 83,095 || 1.4 || 0 || ±0

|-

| style="background:#780000;"|

| align="left"| PSR

| align=left |– || 60,496 || 1.0 || 0 || ±0

|-

| style="background:white;"|

| colspan="2" align="left"| Other parties

| 111,078 || 1.8 || 0 || ±0

|-

| colspan="3" align="left"| Blank/Invalid ballots

| 137,692 || 2.3 || – || –

|- style="background-color:#E9E9E9"

| colspan="3" align="left"| Turnout

| 6,026,395 || 83.94 || 250 || ±0

|-

| colspan="7" align=left|Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições{{cite web |url=https://www.cne.pt/sites/default/files/dl/resultados_ar_1980.pdf |title=Resultados AR 1980 |work=Comissão Nacional de Eleições |access-date=6 August 2024}}

|}

• 80px Grand-Cross of the Order of Christ, Portugal (29 May 1981){{cite web|title=Cidadãos Nacionais Agraciados com Ordens|url=http://www.ordens.presidencia.pt/?idc=153|website=Página Oficial das Ordens Honoríficas Portuguesas|access-date=28 January 2017}}
• 80px Grand-Cross of the Order of the Tower and of the Sword, of Valour, Loyalty and Merit, Portugal (7 March 1986)
• 80px Grand Cross of the Order of Liberty, Portugal (29 November 1990)

• Liberalism in Portugal

{{Reflist}}

• {{YouTube|HZ7TpQs0bsE|Part I}} and {{YouTube|TwwfAZaLPSk|II}} of a version with English subtitles of the official Social Democratic Party documentary made on 25th anniversary of Sá Carneiro's death (4 December 2005)

{{s-start}}

{{s-off}}

{{s-new|office

}}

{{s-ttl

| title = Minister without Portfolio

| years = 1974

| alongside =
Álvaro Cunhal, Francisco Pereira de Moura

}}

{{s-aft

| after = Ernesto Melo Antunes
Joaquim Magalhães Mota
Vítor Alves}}

{{s-bef

| before = Mário Morais de Oliveira

}}

{{s-ttl

| title = Deputy Minister of the Prime Minister

| years = 1974

}}

{{s-aft

| after = António de Almeida Santos

}}

{{s-bef

| before = Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo

}}

{{s-ttl

| title = Prime Minister of Portugal

| years = 1980

}}

{{s-aft

| after = Francisco Pinto Balsemão

}}

{{s-ppo}}

{{s-new|party

}}

{{s-ttl

| title = Secretary-General of the
Social Democratic Party

| years = 1974–1975

}}

{{s-aft

| after = Emídio Guerreiro

}}

{{s-new|office

}}

{{s-ttl

| title = President of the
Social Democratic Party

| years = 1975–1978
1979–1980

| rows = 2

}}

{{s-aft

| after = Francisco Pinto Balsemão

}}

{{s-break}}

{{s-bef

| before = José Menéres Pimentel

}}

{{s-aft

| after = António de Sousa Franco

}}

{{s-end}}

{{PMPortugal1974}}

{{Conspiracy theories}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sa Carneiro, Francisco}}

Category:1934 births

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