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Meanwhile, Premier Gonçalves was apparently struggling to assemble a new Cabinet—the fifth since the coup. Al though President Costa Gomes announced at midweek that "a new government has been formed," its composition had not been revealed by week's end. Observers in Lisbon therefore concluded that Gonçalves was having great difficulty in persuading any civilians, except Communists and radical leftists, to serve in a Cabinet that would wield little real power, would be dominated by the military. Certain to be absent from the Cabinet are the moderates—the Socialists and centrist Popular Democrats, who together polled nearly two-thirds of the vote in last April's Constituent Assembly election. In opposition to the M.F.A.'s recent authoritarian measures, Socialist Party Leader Mário Soares and officials of the Popular Democrats prohibited their party colleagues from participating in the new government. Denouncing the Directory as unconstitutional, Soares called for a broadly representative "government of national salvation," warning last week that "the rhythm of our revolution is too fast."
Low Profile. When Soares quit the Cabinet in mid-July, triggering the recent political crisis, his indirect aim was to topple the pro-Communist Gonçalves. At that time, Soares believed that a majority of the Revolutionary Council sympathized with the moderates and were outraged by Gonçalves' ineptness as an administrator and his increasingly close relations with Communist Party Boss Cunhal. Whether or not this assessment was correct, Soares seems to have overplayed his hand. At a mammoth rally of 50,000 Socialist supporters in Lisbon, he demanded the ouster of Gonçalves. Apparently viewing the speech as an attack on the military's ability to rule the country, the Council's members closed ranks and backed Gonçalves.
It remains to be seen whether Cunhal, who lately has been keeping a very low profile, will be any happier with the troika than Soares is. Creation of the Directory might even be a curb on Gonçalves, since he must share his power with President Costa Gomes, a conciliatory moderate, and with the ambitious Saraiva de Carvalho, a radical leftist who has no use for orthodox Communists. Even the six moderate officers who had boycotted the preliminary meeting, at which the proposal for creating the triumvirate was sketched out, seem to have kept their seats on the Revolutionary Council. When radicals attacked the six dissidents, Costa Gomes allegedly retorted: "The men you are accusing are pillars of the revolution."
Key Prop. The 240-man M.F.A. seems to have almost as many factions as members, yet all of them, in one way or another, are committed to transforming Portugal into some kind of leftist society. Beyond that, though, the M.F.A. is shrouded in secrecy, and its interminable discussions—sometimes lasting until dawn—are closed to the public. "Any revolution must have a little mysticism," explains Minister of Social Communications Jorge Correia Jesuino, a naval commander. "We have ours."