Portugal

After the Second World War the democratic countries of Western Europe join forces in the Council of Europe and the European Community. Conversely, the two nations of the Iberian Peninsula, Portugal and Spain, and their authoritarian regimes remain standing on the sidelines.

In Portugal a one-party dictatorship ("Estado Novo") under Antonio O. Salazar. has ruled since 1933. As the last European colonial power, the Salazar regime attempts to suppress liberation movements in its overseas territories. After Salazar's death in 1970 and after half-hearted attempts at liberalization by his successor Caetano, an opposition group in the military ends the 40-year dictatorship in Portugal through a largely bloodless coup ("Carnation Revolution") on April 25, 1974. The members of the military Junta form a transitional government, facilitate free elections and disband the country's previously all-powerful political police. The Portuguese colonies of Angola, Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau are granted their independence.

A short time later - to the considerable distress of governments in the western alliance - Portugal is threatened by a possible Communist seizure of power. The Social Democratic Party of Germany under the leadership of Willy Brandt proposes to counteract this threat through cooperation with the social democratic and socialist parties of Portugal. With the support of the German social democrats, the Socialist Party of Portugal (PSP) is founded in 1973 at a conference in Bad Münstereifel. Mário Soares , later President of Portugal, becomes its first President. To further stem the influence of the communists, Willy Brandt and his friend Olof Palme establish in Stockholm the "Committee for Friendship and Solidarity for Democracy and Socialism in Portugal". Brandt has faith in the ability of democratic socialism in Portugal to regulate itself. For that reason he pleads with the American Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and the Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnew to prevent intervention by the two superpowers in Portugal.

The fascist regime in Spain was established in 1939 after the end of the Spanish Civil War. Since 1975 the SPD has supported the Socialist Party of Spain (PSOE). The nation now finds itself in a difficult transitional phase from dictatorship to democracy. Willy Brandt is the most prominent speaker at the PSOE party conference in Madrid. In April, 1977, the SPD organizes a solidarity meeting with the PSOE as part of the conference of the Socialist International in Frankfurt/Main.

With their measures of support, Willy Brandt and the SPD make an important contribution to the democratization of Southeastern Europe. Brandt mentions a further goal to journalists, assuring the ability of the NATO alliance to function in the transition zone from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean region.