Ramalho Eanes spoke before the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, during a lecture-debate about the 25th of April with students from high schools and universities, at the former royal riding school, next to the Belém Palace, in Lisbon.

Regarding the background of the 25th of November 1975, the general and first democratically elected President began by stating that he did not want to "make any considerations about the PCP" and that he had "excellent relations with Álvaro Cunhal", a man that he "esteemed" and "considered" very much.

"But at that time the PCP, perhaps harassed by the extreme left, was effectively preparing to establish a totalitarian regime in Portugal", he stated, adding: "I have no doubts".

Citing Melo Antunes, Eanes argued that at the time it was necessary to "re-institutionalize the military apparatus" so that it could oppose "any armed attempt to seize power".

"For various reasons, and as things worsened, the Document of the Nine emerged, which the entire Council of the Revolution practically endorsed and which was signed by thousands of officers. This showed that the military institution was very bad, it was de-institutionalized, it had generally lost its loyalty to the people and to democracy and had created perverse loyalties in relation to party affiliations", he continued.

Specifically about the events of the 25th of November, Eanes said that there was "a military offensive", in his opinion "frivolously organized by the extreme left, but in which the PCP could not have failed to intervene", and against which he and other military officers were forced to act.

"We took that action, in short, and I repeat that it could have led to a civil war and that the 25th of November was indispensable. I repeat: it was indispensable, so that the military's promises of honour to the population would be fulfilled", he defended.

According to Eanes, the outcome of the 25th of November was due to the "military officers who had remained loyal to the promise of honour they had made to the population, which was to give them back their freedom, but freedom without conditions" and who "decided, faced with an armed insurrection to respond -- well, and to an armed insurrection, naturally, one only responds with weapons".

"The 25th of April was unique, it was founding. It is what granted freedom to the Portuguese. It is what we should celebrate, commemorate and above all reflect on. But we should not forget the natural disturbance that followed, in which there was a battle of ideologies, of models of society, in which there was a PREC that created an unsustainable situation, a situation of fear and a situation that brought us close to a civil war", he declared.

In this lecture-debate, Eanes reported that he was in Angola and received the news of the 25th of April without surprise, because he "had participated in the different meetings that had been held to organize a response to the regime", with "great joy" and "great hope", because "the Portuguese were going to have freedom" and "finally, the colonial war would end".

"But I had no doubts that decolonization would be tragic, as it was. In fact, I say this with ease, with great ease. I know that many people will say that they think decolonization was a wonderful thing. It was not", he considered.

In his opinion, it was tragic because "it left those countries, Angola and Mozambique, in a situation of war that lasted for years and that destroyed everything" and because "it made many Angolans return to the continent".

"They were born in Angola, they were Angolans, they knew no other homeland than that one, they had no other land than that one, land where their dead were, where their children had been born, and suddenly they are forced, losing everything, to return to a land that had been that of their ancestors, but that they did not know, that they did not love. They are the returnees", he added.

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