Canto e Castro becomes president

On the evening of 16 December 1918, in the São Bento Palace in Lisbon, the Congress of the Republic, a joint session of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, elected Admiral João do Canto e Castro president of Portugal. Two days earlier President Sidónio Pais had been shot dead at Rossio station. A British chronology of the war records under this date that “Senhor Antunes” had been appointed acting president. The new president’s full name was João do Canto e Castro Silva Antunes, but he was known as Canto e Castro. Nor was he merely acting president. Congress elected him president for the rest of the term begun in 1915 by Bernardino Machado, whom Pais had overthrown, that is, until 5 October 1919.

Two days without a president

During the night of 14–15 December, after Pais’s death, the secretaries of state of his government decided that they were assuming full executive power. On 15 December they chose as their chairman Canto e Castro, secretary of state for the navy and acting secretary for foreign affairs. According to Rui Ramos, three reasons were decisive: he was the oldest of them, held the highest rank and was the least “political”. He had accepted the ministry in September 1918 as a service posting and dealt only with naval matters. He was therefore regarded as an impartial arbiter between the men and factions who wanted to take Pais’s place.

For behind the scenes a struggle for power was under way. Military commanders from the monarchist garrison juntas had agreed, with Pais’s consent as they themselves claimed, that in the event of his death they would set up a “military government”. The republican ministers, above all the secretary of state for finance João Tamagnini Barbosa and the secretary for foreign affairs Egas Moniz, wanted to prevent this. They argued that Britain would take a military dictatorship badly, and pressed for a president to be elected as quickly as possible under the rules of the 1911 constitution, which Pais had suspended. The best candidate seemed to be a military man whose authority would hold the juntas in check. They were helped by the monarchist leader Aires de Ornelas, representative of the exiled King Manuel II. The king did not consider the moment right for a restoration of the monarchy, and Ornelas warned the commanders that a civil war could end in foreign intervention.

The election at São Bento

On 16 December parliament passed a law confirming the government’s authority until the new president was sworn in. A few hours before the vote the Chamber of Deputies also restored the articles of the 1911 constitution on the election of the president by Congress and on a prime minister as head of government separate from the head of state. The presidential system of the “New Republic” ceased to exist. That same afternoon Canto e Castro, still as chairman of the government, gave a short speech in the Chamber in honour of Pais. In it he mentioned only his clemency towards those arrested and the tribute he had paid to the sailors of the Augusto de Castilho.

134 members of Congress were present for the first ballot, but the monarchist deputies and senators walked out of the chamber. Only 125 ballots were cast, 121 of them bearing the name of Canto e Castro and one vote each for José Relvas, Basílio Teles and Garcia Rosado. A valid election required two-thirds of the members of both chambers, that is 131. The monarchists were therefore asked to return. Ornelas agreed, declaring that the election of a president was “absolutely indispensable for the honour and prosperity of the country”. In the second ballot Canto e Castro received 137 of 138 votes; one ballot was blank. At about seven in the evening, in darkness and drizzle, he was led out onto the balcony. Only a cavalry detachment stood in the square, and ships on the Tagus fired salutes.

A monarchist in the Belém Palace

The new president was 56. He came from a monarchist family, was the son of a general and had served in the navy all his life. In 1894, as governor of Lourenço Marques, today’s Maputo, he defended the town against attacks by the local population. In 1908 he sat in the last parliament of the monarchy. After the monarchy was overthrown in 1910 he maintained strict neutrality and served the republic just as he had previously served the king. According to Colonel João de Almeida, one of the junta leaders, Canto e Castro confided to him in those days: “I too am a monarchist.” The commanders believed they would have an ally in the Belém Palace, as the French monarchists had had Marshal Mac-Mahon in the 1870s. This made it easier to defuse their plans.

Under the 1911 constitution, however, the president was mainly the guardian of the constitutional order, and executive power returned to the prime minister. The calm did not last long. As early as 18 December the military junta in Porto greeted the new president but warned that if it was not “heard” it would take over all power. In January 1919 Canto e Castro, a monarchist by conviction, had to suppress a monarchist uprising in the north of the country. He remained in office until the end of the term, 5 October 1919.