25 April 1974: Day 1 of Portugal's transition to democracy

How can we explain the passivity of the Direction Générale de Sécurité (DGS) - formerly the Police Internationale de Défense de l'État (PIDE) - before and during 25 April? And that of the members of the government and the military hierarchy loyal to the dictatorship? What were the main factors behind the coup's success? Why wasn't the dictatorship's political police one of the first targets? How did the storming of the DGS premises and the release of political prisoners come about? The exegete looks back at a pivotal day for Portugal in an attempt to shed light on some of the questions that remain.

This talk will be in French.