Afonso Costa prime minister for the third time

On 25 April 1917 President Bernardino Machado appointed a new government of Portugal. At its head, for the third time, stood Afonso Costa, leader of the Democratic Party. As in his previous cabinets, he kept the finance ministry for himself, which he had also headed in the outgoing government. On the same day the cabinet of António José de Almeida stepped down, the so-called “Sacred Union” government, which had ruled since March 1916, for more than 13 months. For the unstable First Republic this was a very long time.

The end of the “Sacred Union”

From the outset the “Sacred Union” was in practice a coalition of only two parties: Costa’s Democrats and Almeida’s Evolutionists. Manuel de Brito Camacho’s Unionists, the socialists, monarchists and Catholics remained in opposition. Over the winter the coalition weakened. In December 1916, after the failed revolt of the naval officer Machado Santos against sending troops to France, parliament passed legislation allowing those accused of subversive activity to be held without trial until the end of the war. For some Evolutionist deputies this was too much. They left their party and went over to the opposition, to the “parliamentary bloc” grouped around the Unionists.

The government was brought down by a dispute over the National Economic Council, a new body in which the government met representatives of agriculture, commerce and industry, then called the “living forces” of the country. The council, created by decree in March 1917, had its own budget and secretariat, and its opinions were printed in the official gazette. The Democrats regarded it as a rival to parliament, in which they had a majority. According to the historian Filipe Ribeiro de Meneses, the clash came in April, when Costa was abroad, according to Portuguese chronologies in Spain and France, and Almeida was, as often, ill. The ministers present in the Chamber made the council a matter of confidence. The Democratic deputies then voted with the opposition and the government fell. Many observers, in Portugal and abroad, did not believe they had done so without their leader’s knowledge. According to the same chronologies, Costa returned home on 23 April, and two days later he was already prime minister.

A Democratic government

The new cabinet was made up exclusively of Democrats and a few non-party experts. The Evolutionists did not join the government but promised to support it on matters important to the country, so the name “Sacred Union” formally survived. The two ministers most important for the war carried over from the old government: José Norton de Matos, war minister since July 1915 and organiser of the corps for France, and the foreign minister, Augusto Soares. Artur de Almeida Ribeiro became interior minister, Alexandre Braga justice minister, and the non-party Ernesto de Vilhena, son of one of the leaders of the old monarchists, colonial minister. The Portuguese political scientist José Adelino Maltez points out that the cabinet included many former monarchists and only two “historic” republicans: Costa himself and Braga. On 26 April the government appeared before the Chamber of Deputies, and on 27 April before the Senate.

The war remained the most important task. Since February transports of the Portuguese Expeditionary Corps had been sailing to France, and on 4 April, while Costa was still abroad, the first Portuguese units entered the trenches for training alongside the British. Costa, who since 1914 had demanded Portugal’s participation in the war on Britain’s side, hoped that taking part in the fighting in France would secure the country a place at the future peace table and help protect its colonies. At home, however, the situation was growing worse. There was a shortage of bread, prices were rising, and in Porto crowds were already looting bakeries in April.

Costa’s last government

The cabinet lasted less than eight months. In May Lisbon was swept by food riots that claimed dozens of victims, and the government suspended constitutional guarantees. Within the Democratic Party itself some deputies accused Costa of being a “false radical” and demanded a national government. In July the opposition forced secret sessions of parliament devoted to Portugal’s part in the war. In October Costa and President Machado visited the soldiers in Flanders. In early December 1917 Major Sidónio Pais seized power in a military coup, and Costa was arrested in Porto. It was his last government. After the war, in 1919, he led the Portuguese delegation to the Paris Peace Conference and signed the Treaty of Versailles on behalf of his country.