PORTUGAL: Shaping a Dynamic Future

The young officers of the Armed Forces Movement who engineered last April's revolution promised elections within a year—and last week they made good on that promise. From his desk in Lisbon's pink stucco Belém Palace, President Francisco da Costa Gomes announced that the government had set April 12 as the date for Portugal's first free elections in 49 years. The balloting for a constituent assembly to draft a new constitution, Costa Gomes said on TV, marked "a fundamental milestone" on the path to democracy. Cautioning voters against extremists of both the left and right, he added that "not to...