In an interview with the Lusa agency, one of the few women who belonged to the Popular Forces of April 25 (FP-25) assumes that the apprehensions that were at the origin of the organization - namely the idea that the "old gentlemen" of the New State were returning six years after the revolution and that advances for the workers would be halted - are still true today, 50 years after April 25.

"It's so obvious, it's so obvious: we have Chega almost in power. We were right," she argues, stressing that April 25 was "fulfilled until November 25 [military movement in which the radical left and the moderates clashed and which put an end to the revolutionary period] and, from then on, it went downhill".

"How are the working people? How is health? How is education? How are the pensioners? What has been fulfilled? Nothing," she criticizes, considering that, in recent years, there has been a "frightening" regression and that young people today have much less political awareness.

This idea is also conveyed by another former member of the FP-25, tried as a leader of the organization, who believes that capitalism has managed to "anesthetize and put workers to sleep", who are now afraid "to take risks, even to go on strike", so as not to lose the "small conquests" they have achieved.

50 years after April 25, this former FP-25 operative agrees that "everything" of the Revolution's ideals "has yet to be fulfilled", admitting "a pain in the soul" when he looks at the state that Portuguese society has reached.

"Where is the right to housing? To education? They are going to end the National Health Service (SNS), which was one of the noblest achievements of our society. The issue of pensions... This is very shaky today," he says.

Still, not everyone shares this negative view of Portuguese society. There are those who disagree and consider that the "change is radical" when compared to the New State, and that April 25 was fulfilled "in part", especially as regards the establishment of democracy.

"Of what we defended, things didn't go well, they went badly. But things are better, much better, there is no doubt about it," stresses another FP-25 operative, who is optimistic about the future, despite acknowledging that the "danger is still there", particularly at a time when there has been a "significant advance" of the "forces that existed before April 25".

The return of these forces, embodied in the extreme right or populist right, is one of the concerns evident in the words of these former members, who also criticize the "abysmal difference" in treatment given to the FP-25 case and to extreme-right terrorist groups that operated immediately after April 25, such as the Democratic Movement for the Liberation of Portugal (MDLP) or the Liberation Army of Portugal (ELP).

"The extreme right today uses us to attack the left, hiding that they did the same. The extreme right also had its own bombing network, which also attacked headquarters and killed people," recalls one of the members, who is corroborated by a second, who considers that there is "no possible comparison" between the two cases.

"We served an average of six, seven years in prison. They didn't serve any prison time, including those who were convicted, they found ways for them to leave and be placed, including in public companies," he criticizes, adding that some members of these extreme right organizations are now "integrated into the state apparatus".

Although some consider that April was not fulfilled, and took up arms to defend their ideals - in total, the FP-25 killed 13 people between 1980 and 1987 - there are those who point out that the use of violence as a method of political action has no longer a place in today's society.

"I think that, in today's society, resorting to violence is hitting a wall," says the former member who was tried as the organization's leader, and who believes that organizations like FP-25 would not have "any chance" today and would quickly reach "a dead end".

Another former comrade of his says that violence is a method of political action always used by power - which, "when people don't do what it wants, puts the police and the army on them" - but stresses that violence can never be an end.

"Violence is a means that, as we can see, does not yield great results in certain situations. In others, it does," he says.

One of the few women who joined the FP-25 has no doubt that young people today would not take up arms to defend their ideals, although she stresses that she would understand if, in the current national political framework, an organization like FP-25 emerged again.

"I would understand, completely. And I would support it, I have no doubt about it, at least to hide" members of that organization, she says.

Read Also: FP-25. Here are the main dates in the organization's history (Portuguese version)