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Soares stumped the countryside, often to the wonder of the peasants. When a Soares "cavalcade" roared through a village, some people locked their doors, others thought it was a wedding procession, and one woman, asked if she were a voter, replied: "I think so. What is a voter?" In the cities, audiences cheered as he scourged the "fascists" and demanded "the end of the oppression of the political police."
Obstacle to Progress. The true character of the Caetano regime may become clearer next year, when the new National Assembly will be empowered to rewrite the constitution. Caetano's tough talk seems to indicate that there will be no great changes in the authoritarian Estado Novo that Salazar patterned after Mussolini's Italy, though no country in Europe is more in need of change. Government travel posters coyly claim that Portugal is Europe's best kept secret—quaint, unspoiled and cheap. Sometimes, however, it seems as if Europe is Portugal's best-kept secret. The Continent's prosperity has bypassed the country, whose 9,500,000 people have a 38% illiteracy rate and an annual per capita income of only $490 (Spain's: $830). Two-fifths of Portugal's 13,387 towns lack electricity, and three-fourths have no running water. The future is so bleak that more than 1,000,000 Portuguese have emigrated to jobs north of the Pyrenees.
Some National Union members are demanding sweeping reforms. Right now, however, most of the muscle belongs to the archconservatives, who still control much of the economy—and the army. These "ultras" are dead set against change, particularly in the country's archaic colonial policy. Lisbon's unwinnable eight-year war against African nationalists in Mozambique, Angola and Guinea ties up 130,000 troops and 40% of the national budget. It is thus one of the chief obstacles to progress.
When Caetano suggested during the campaign that the costly colonial policy should be an issue, the ultras were outraged. "The army is vigilant," Portugal's Chief of Staff warned ominously. Américo Thomaz, a retired admiral who serves as the figurehead President, snapped that the colonies were "to be defended, not discussed." Sometimes it seems as if old Salazar is still running the place after all.