Resignation of Manuel de Arriaga

On 29 May 1915 Manuel de Arriaga, the first President of Portugal elected under the constitution of the republic, formally resigned his office at a session of Congress. The resignation ended a process that had lasted two weeks. As early as 16 May, two days after the overthrow of General Pimenta de Castro’s government, Arriaga had sent a letter of resignation to the head of the new government. On 26 May he sent Congress an official message announcing his resignation, which is why some sources take that date as the end of his presidency. Congress accepted the resignation on 29 May and at the same session elected his successor. That day Arriaga left the Belém Palace escorted by the National Republican Guard.

An old-school republican

Arriaga was 74. He was born in 1840 in Horta on the Azorean island of Faial. He was a lawyer, teacher, poet and one of the best orators of the republican movement. Under the monarchy he twice sat in parliament as one of the few republican deputies. After the revolution of 1910 he became rector of the university of Coimbra, and then Attorney General. On 24 August 1911 the constituent assembly elected him president, against the wishes of the radical Democrats of Afonso Costa. He received 121 of 217 votes, mainly from moderate republicans.

As president he tried in vain to reconcile the feuding republican factions, which after 1910 had split into separate parties. He was opposed to the dominance of the Democrats. In January 1915, after a protest by officers, he entrusted the government to General Pimenta de Castro, who governed without parliament. The Democrats regarded this as an attack on the constitution, and the deputies, meeting without the government’s consent, declared the president and the general outlaws. After the victorious rising of 14 May Arriaga, blamed for introducing the dictatorship, no longer had any support either in the army or in parliament.

A bitter farewell

In his letter of resignation Arriaga defended himself against the charges. He wrote that the victims of the May fighting had died needlessly and that General Pimenta de Castro’s rule had been less dictatorial than that of his predecessors. He also recalled that the laws of 1914–1915 had given future governments extraordinary war powers. Congress, dominated by the victorious Democrats, received his departure coldly. According to the political chronicles of those days, only one deputy, Aresta Branco, spoke words of farewell and appreciation.

Arriaga withdrew from public life. In 1916 he published the book “Na Primeira Presidência da República Portuguesa”, in which he defended his presidency. Embittered, in a conversation with the journalist Augusto de Castro he ironically called himself a “political criminal”. He died in Lisbon on 5 March 1917. Later generations judged him more kindly. In 2004 his remains were moved to the National Pantheon in Lisbon.