Salazar assassinated

The Vulture

Banned
Excellent question, friend. I was actually planning to post the same question, funny how things work out like that.

First things first, the Portuguese Legion and PIDE would have to clamp down tight to keep anyone from taking advantage of the assassination. Carmona would be an interim leader until a new Prime Minister is selected (preferably someone from the military or paramilitary, to project strength and demand respect). It'd be interesting to see what such a man would do with the colonies.

Also, I imagine the regime (feeling insecure) becomes more oppressive. PIDE steps up operations, even more people are arrested and sent to Tarrafal Prison to be tortured and possibly executed.
 
The opposition, especially the remaining anarchists, would be more ruthlessly persecuted.
Given that Salazar by that time, had already coopted or shun away potential conservative reformers, it is commonly believed that he would be replaced by someone more right-winger (possibly a member of his government).
This opens several interesting questions, and changes the internal dynamics of the regime. If Salazar is replaced by someone even more right-winger, he would potentially alienate all the coopted elements of the old conservative republican opposition who supported him for fear of getting back the First Republic and its instability. This would help make Carmona very weary of whoever succeeded Salazar (he was not a fan of Salazar and was a means of appeasing and securing the military support) and prone to help depose such person, and WW2 is a few years later, in which case it is possible an Axis Portugal, but where the government would have even less support, making possible a change of regime to a pro-Allies regime during the later stages of WW2.
 
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