ABSTRACT
When António de Oliveira Salazar is succeeded by Marcello Caetano in 1968, a semi-opposition emerges from the extreme right of the regime to oppose the liberalization promoted by the new head of government. That semi-opposition results from the convergence of different factions of the Portuguese far right concerned with the so-called “Marcelist Spring”. In this context, the far right milieu is enriched by new cohorts of militants coming mainly from the University of Coimbra. Those militants fear the dismantling of the Empire caused by Caetano’s liberalization and by the anti-colonialist radicalization of the student movement. In comparison with the far-right groups from Lisbon, the comrades from Coimbra shows a high degree of ideological and organizational innovations in the light of the modernization of the European neo-fascism in the aftermath of May 1968 and during the 1970s.
