I Constitutional Government of Portugal

Following the Carnation Revolution on 25 April 1974, Portugal entered a period of transition to democracy. During this period, which lasted for about two years, several provisional administrations governed the country, starting with the National Salvation Junta, which was followed by six other provisional governments composed of military and civilian members.

On 25 April 1975, one year after the revolution, elections were carried out in Portugal to elect the 250 members of the Constituent Assembly. The main goal of this Constituent Assembly was to write a new Constitution of Portugal to replace the Estado Novo's Constitution of 1933. This assembly had a one-year mandate with no governing functions, as the country continued to be governed by a military-civilian provisional government during the deliberations of the Constituent Assembly. The Socialist Party (PS), with 38% of the votes, was the party with most representation.

The new Constitution of Portugal, drafted over the course of a year, was finally promulgated on 2 April 1976. Immediately after the promulgation, the Constituent Assembly was disbanded.

On 25 April 1976, the first legislative elections were carried out to elect the members of the Assembly of the Republic (the new official name of the Portuguese Parliament) and the new Constitutional Government of Portugal. The Socialist Party won the election with 34.89% of the votes,[1] and got the approval of the President of Portugal António Ramalho Eanes to form a minority government. As the leader of PS, Mário Soares was sworn as Prime Minister, and became the first democratically-elect Prime Minister of the Third Portuguese Republic.

The government was composed of the Prime Minister, one Minister of State, a Minister without portfolio, and 15 ministries comprising Ministers, Secretaries and Sub-secretaries of State. The government also included the Ministers of the Republic for the Autonomous Regions of Azores and Madeira.[2]

Ministers of the I Constitutional Government of Portugal[1]

Office	Minister		Party		Start of term	End of term
Prime Minister		Mário Soares		PS	23 July 1976	23 January 1978
Minister of State	Henrique de Barros			PS	23 July 1976	23 January 1978
Minister without portfolio	Jorge Campinos			PS	23 July 1976	23 January 1978
Minister of National Defence	Mário Firmino Miguel			Independent	23 July 1976	23 January 1978
Minister of the Economic Plan and Coordination	António Sousa Gomes			PS	23 July 1976	23 January 1978
Minister of the Internal Administration	Manuel da Costa Brás			Independent	23 July 1976	23 January 1978
Minister of Justice		António de Almeida Santos		PS	23 July 1976	23 January 1978
Minister of Finance		Henrique Medina Carreira		PS	23 July 1976	23 January 1978
Minister of Foreign Affairs	José Medeiros Ferreira			PS	23 July 1976	11 October 1977
		Mário Soares		PS	12 October 1977	23 January 1978
Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries	António Lopes Cardoso			PS	23 July 1976	5 November 1976
		António Barreto		PS	5 November 1976	23 January 1978
Minister of Industry and Technology	Walter Rosa			PS	23 July 1976	7 January 1977
	António Sousa Gomes			PS	7 January 1977	25 March 1977
	Alfredo Nobre da Costa			Independent	25 March 1977	23 January 1978
Minister of Commerce and Tourism		António Barreto		PS	23 July 1976	25 March 1977
	Carlos Mota Pinto			Independent	25 March 1977	23 January 1978
Minister of Labour	Francisco Marcelo Curto			PS	23 July 1976	25 March 1977
	António Maldonado Gonelha			PS	25 March 1977	23 January 1978
Minister of Education and Scientific Research	Mário Sottomayor Cardia			PS	23 July 1976	23 January 1978
Minister of Social Affairs	Armando Bacelar			PS	23 July 1976	23 January 1978
Minister of Transports and Communications	Emílio Rui Vilar			PS	23 July 1976	23 January 1978
Minister of Housing, City Planning and Construction	Eduardo Pereira			PS	23 July 1976	23 January 1978
Minister of Public Works	João Almeida Pina			Independent	23 July 1976	23 January 1978
Minister of the Republic for the Autonomous Region of Azores	Octávio Galvão de Figueiredo			Independent	25 March 1977	23 January 1978
Minister of the Republic for the Autonomous Region of Madeira	Lino Miguel			Independent	25 March 1977	23 January 1978

By the second half of 1977, the situation of the Portuguese economy was deteriorating. During the summer of 1977, Prime Minister Mário Soares asked for a loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and several austerity measures were implemented, such as the rise of interest rates, devalue of the escudo and budget cuts.[3][4] However, the policies were quite unpopular and by late 1977 Soares was facing significant opposition in the Parliament.

In November 1977, Soares proposed a sizeable memorandum between parties and associations to seek common economic and social policies, which was rejected.[5] Because of this rejection, Soares presented a motion of confidence to the Parliament, which he lost by a 59 vote margin.[6] Consequently, Soares announced the dissolution of the government, which took effect on 23 January 1978.