António Soares Carneiro

Who was António Soares Carneiro?

António da Silva Osório Braga Soares Carneiro, OA ComI GCTE was a Portuguese retired military officer and former politician. A General in the Portuguese Army, he was Governor of a southern province of Portuguese Angola at the time of the Carnation Revolution which deposed the Estado Novo 25 April 1974.

In the presidential election of 1980, the right-wing Democratic Alliance, a coalition consisting of the Social Democratic Party, the Democratic and Social Centre, and the People's Monarchist Party, nominated Soares Carneiro as its candidate. Two of his leading supporters, Prime Minister Francisco Sá Carneiro and Defence Minister Adelino Amaro da Costa died in a plane crash while heading for a rally in Porto two days before the election. Most polls suggest that this deaths didn't have much influence in the result of the presidential elections, since they predicted the reelection of President, General António Ramalho Eanes, who had 56% of the votes, while Soares Carneiro had 40%.

Soares Carneiro later served as Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, under the presidency of Mário Soares.