Teófilo Braga becomes President of Portugal

A British chronology of the war records under 28 May 1915 that Teófilo Braga became the new President of Portugal. According to Portuguese sources, including the official website of the presidency, Congress, that is, the two chambers of parliament sitting jointly, elected him at its session of 29 May. It had reconvened on 27 May, for the first time since the fall of General Pimenta de Castro’s dictatorship, and first accepted the resignation of the outgoing President, Manuel de Arriaga, before proceeding to the vote. Braga received 98 votes. One vote went to Duarte Leite, and three ballots were blank. Under the constitution of 1911 the new president was only to complete his predecessor’s term, which expired in October 1915.

A scholar from the Azores

Braga was 72. He was born in 1843 in Ponta Delgada on the island of São Miguel in the Azores. He was a poet, philologist and historian of Portuguese literature, a professor in Lisbon from the 1870s and one of the leading propagators in the country of Auguste Comte’s positivism. He had belonged to the republican movement since his youth, and in 1891 he was one of the authors of the programme of the Portuguese Republican Party. After the overthrow of the monarchy on 5 October 1910 he headed the provisional government. Until the election of the first president in August 1911 he was in practice head of state.

Braga’s election was a stopgap solution. The scholar led no party, and among republicans he enjoyed authority as one of the fathers of the movement. This suited the victors of the May uprising from Afonso Costa’s Democratic Party, who dominated Congress. The moderate republicans, António José de Almeida’s Evolutionists, took no part in the proceedings. In his speech after the election Braga criticised General Pimenta de Castro’s government as a dictatorship. He believed that the president should only watch over the work of parliament, and not meddle in politics as his predecessor had done.

A president on the tram

The new president was a widower. His wife and three children had died before him. He lived modestly and attached no importance to honours. According to the recollections of contemporaries, even as head of state he rode around Lisbon by tram, with an umbrella under his arm. His presidency did not begin calmly. The prime minister designate, João Chagas, lay wounded in hospital, and the government was run temporarily by José de Castro, who took office permanently in June. On 13 June parliamentary elections were held, which the Democrats won decisively.

Braga held office for only a few months. In August 1915 Congress elected Bernardino Machado for a full term, and he took over the duties of president on 5 October. Braga withdrew from politics and died in Lisbon in January 1924.