Portal:Portugal/Selected biography

António de Oliveira Salazar (April 28, 1889—July 27, 1970) was the President of the Council of Ministers of Portugal for 36 years, from 1932 to 1968, and founder of the Estado Novo (New Regime). He was the last of a family of 11, and he was also the only male child. He studied at the Seminary, from 1900 to 1914 and thought of becoming a priest, but he later changed his mind. He studied law at Coimbra University during the first years of the Republican regime. As a young man, his involvement in politics stems from his Catholic views, which were aroused by the new anticlerical Portuguese First Republic. He was Finance Minister during the Ditadura Nacional, and then was appointed President of the Council of Ministers (Prime Minister). Salazar developed the "Estado Novo" (literally, New State). The basis of his regime was a platform of stability; his reforms were advantageous to the upper classes while detrimental to the poorer sections of society. Education was not seen as a priority and therefore not heavily invested in. Salazar relied on the secret police (often known by the name it carried from 1945--1969, PIDE) to repress, torture and, in extreme cases, murder dissidents. During his political rule, Portugal remainded neutral in World War II, joined EFTA and NATO and started a Colonial War. (continued...)