António de Eça de Queiroz or Queirós () (28 December 1891 – 16 May 1968) was a

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

monarchist Monarchism is the advocacy of the system of monarchy or monarchical rule. A monarchist is an individual who supports this form of government independently of any specific monarch, whereas one who supports a particular monarch is a royalist. ...

politician and agitator and an official in the Estado Novo of

António de Oliveira Salazar António de Oliveira Salazar (, , ; 28 April 1889 – 27 July 1970) was a Portuguese dictator who served as President of the Council of Ministers from 1932 to 1968. Having come to power under the ("National Dictatorship"), he reframed the r ...

. He was married to Maria Cristina Guimarães Rino ( Alcobaça, Casa do Retiro, c. 1890 – Alcobaça, 1960), without issue.

Uprisings

Born in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

, the son of celebrated realist author José Maria de Eça de Queiroz, he was educated at a polytechnic school in Portugal before entering militia officer training.

Philip Rees Philip Rees (born 1941) is a British writer and librarian formerly in charge of acquisitions at the J. B. Morrell Library, University of York. He has written books on fascism and the extreme right. Works *''Fascism in Britain'' (Harvester Pres ...

, ''

Biographical Dictionary of the Extreme Right Since 1890 The ''Biographical Dictionary of the Extreme Right Since 1890'' is a reference book by Philip Rees, on leading people in the various far right movements since 1890. It contains entries for what the author regards as "the 500 major figures on the r ...

'', 1990, p. 108 He became associated with the monarchist cause from an early age and was involved in the incursions which culminated in the

Royalist attack on Chaves The attack on Chaves, which occurred on 8 July, 1912, was a military action performed by supporters of the monarchy of Portugal in opposition to the Portuguese First Republic, which had been proclaimed two years prior. The attack was led by H ...

in 1912. As a result, he spent most of the period 1910 to 1915 in exile. He would continue his involvement in such activity throughout the decade, notably in

Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropol ...

between 1919 and 1920. He took part in the 28 May 1926 coup d'état and then a further uprising in Porto in February 1927 designed to push the government towards more monarchist policies.

Fascism

Eça de Queiroz was a strong supporter of the Salazar regime and he sought office in the new government when it took charge in 1932. Initially however he was only employed at a low level, representing Portugal at

world fair A world's fair, also known as a universal exhibition or an expo, is a large international exhibition designed to showcase the achievements of nations. These exhibitions vary in character and are held in different parts of the world at a specif ...

s and similar events. He was the head of Salazar's official youth movement, the ''Acção Escolar Vanguarda''. In this capacity he represented Portugal at the

1934 Montreux Fascist conference The 1934 Montreux Fascist conference, also known as the Fascist International Congress, was a meeting held by deputies from a number of European Fascist organizations. The conference was held on 16–17 December 1934 in Montreux, Switzerland. The ...

despite Salazar officially disavowing

fascism Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy an ...

. At the time Eça de Queiroz was flirting with the

National Syndicalists National syndicalism is a far-right adaptation of syndicalism to suit the broader agenda of integral nationalism. National syndicalism developed in France in the early 20th century, and then spread to Italy, Spain, and Portugal. It is generall ...

and it was as a representative of this group that he was announced at the conference. After the meeting he became secretary of the ''Comitati d'Azione per l'Universalità di Roma'' (CAUR), or the Action Committees for the Universality of Rome for Portugal, although Eugénio de Castro was President.

Government activity

Eça de Queiroz was promoted in 1943 to the role of sub-director of the Secretariat for National Propaganda. In this role he became one of the most important figures in the Press Department of Salazar's regime.

Mircea Eliade Mircea Eliade (; – April 22, 1986) was a Romanian historian of religion, fiction writer, philosopher, and professor at the University of Chicago. He was a leading interpreter of religious experience, who established paradigms in religiou ...

, ''Autobiography'', 1988, p. 95 In 1951 he was appointed President of ''Direção de Emissora Nacional de Radiofusão'', a role he held until 1959. In this position he was effectively head of broadcasting in Portugal. It was also under Eça de Queiroz that

television in Portugal Television in Portugal was introduced in 1956 (test broadcasts) by Radiotelevisão Portuguesa (now named Rádio e Televisão de Portugal), which held the nationwide television monopoly until late 1992. Regular broadcasting was introduced on March ...

was first introduced. He left government after this, although he continued to write for a number of journals and newspapers, invariably in support of Salazar.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Queiroz, Antonio Eca de 1891 births 1968 deaths Portuguese fascists Portuguese monarchists Television in Portugal French people of Portuguese descent