The identity of Portugal and the political discourse of the radical right: from the multiracialism to the ethno-nationalism

Abstract

The identity of the radical right in the second post-war period is characterized by the milestone April 25th 1974. Before the Carnation Revolution, the radical right identified itself, although with a critical posture, with the nationalistic political culture of the authoritarian regime and, especially, with the multi-continental and multiracial dimensions of the myth of the Portuguese Empire. The end of the Empire caused by the overthrow of the authoritarian regime and the establishment of the democracy made the Portuguese radical right an antisystem actor, with a discourse that distances itself from the myth of Portugal “from Minho to East Timor” and gets closer to the identitarian and racialist discourse of the European and North-American far rights. This gradual transformation in the political culture of the radical right also coincides with a generational change in militancy in the last quarter of the 20th century and the dawn of the twentyfirst century. The paper analyzes the generational, organizational and ideological dynamics that characterised the radical right highlighting the political discourse of the nationalist groups founded during the Colonial War and the discourse of the most notorious radical group at the end of the Century: the National Action Movement (MAN).