Lisbon, Portugal
TV viewers in Portugal have touched off a national identity crisis by voting for their former dictator as the “greatest Portuguese of all time.” António de Oliveira Salazar brought stability to Portugal when he took power in a 1926 coup, but he also created a police state that tortured dissidents and censored all critics. Prime Minister José Sócrates blamed the choice of Salazar on a vocal group of right-wing bloggers who mobilized the extremist vote. “We are a modern European country,” Sócrates said. “We voted 59 percent in favor of liberalizing abortion.”
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