Where the Social Democrats are the political right...
The regime of Salazar was unique among other military dictatorship of 20's and 30's. It was trying to realize to the fullest extent its own populist slogans. There was no liberty, but there was equality. Paths of carreer in national institutions (especially in the army) were open for socially oppressed classes - workers and peasants. In the long-term run it rendered the army especially vulnerable for all kinds of left-wing political influence.
Salazar died in 1968. New prime minister Marcello Caetano half-hearted commenced to implement some semi-democratic reforms. Obviously he did not read Tocqueville, who wrote that this is a suicide for every weak regime, leading imminently to a revolution - which indeed broke on April 25, 1974. The spark came from the army, fighting a bloody and useless war in remote colonies. Most of the leading military officers was already involved in numerous left-wing activity. The victorious Movement of the Armed Forces (Movimento das Forcas Armadas, MFA) consisted of many groups, among which the communists were not the most extreme left.
The revolution was almost completely peaceful - corrupted forces of the old regime posed only a very weak resistance. It was called The Revolution of the Carnations, because those cute flowers were in bloom then. The only victims fell in accidental fire under the establishment of Salazar's political police, PIDE. General Antonio Spinola became the head of the military junta. Democratic reforms were promised, but not before the complete victory of revolution.
Situation in Portugal remained unstable for several years. The country was flooded by millions of Portuguese settlers, escaping from war-torns ex-colonies, what virtually destroyed labour market. In MFA a constant clash between extreme and moderate left resulted in series of coups. In September Spinola resigned the presidency, warning of growing Communist influence. In March 1975 he was engaged in an anti-Communist coup, and after its failure he left the country. In November the extreme left attempted to make its own coup, which also failed. The year of 1975 was a period of violent street fightings between the Communists and Socialists, more violent than the revolution itself. But the path was open for an evolution towards a standard European democracy. The elections of 1976 ended the provisional period in Portugal. Since 1978 the left was no longer in power, but its symbols and ideas were still popular. In today's Portugal the most extreme right in parliament are the parties: Popular and Social-Democratic.
This is one of my favourite revolutions. What I like mostly in it, is that the only negotiation with the ancien regime was carried out through a speaking-tube from a barricaded establishment of PIDE: the revolutionists promised to Marcello Caetano and his few supporters, that if they would surrender and leave the country within 24 hours, they will not be harmed. And the promise was kept. I like this way of talking to fallen dictators. Unfortunately, in my country after the fall of communism it went in totally oposite way.