Soulflytribe wrote:I think this happened solely because Portugal became a communist state for a brief period in the '70s and the West wanted to secure Portugal as a non-communist nation because of its strategic geographic location in Europe.
That is complete nonsense. Portugal could never be a communist state. There are a number of left wing parties in the countries (mostly representing conservative policies) because they were the only political force to oppose the repression under the right-wing Salazar dictatorship. Why are Americans forever obsessed with communism? It completely distorts their views and does terrible things to the World.
The EU (EC) also has nothing to do with defense. Portugal has been a NATO member since long before it joined the EU. EU membership also has nothing to do with GDP. Every European nation (even Turkey) has the right to EU membership as long as it fulfills certain requirements with regards to the rule of law, democracy and the like. The obstacle to EU membership was the Franco dictatorship in Spain and the Salazar dictatorship in Portugal. As soon as these two were gone, there was nothing to prevent EU membership. I was dancing in the streets of Paris with my Spanish and Portuguese friends when Franco died. Why is everyone so obsessed with the economy and with defense? Both Portugal and Spain have been central to European culture for over 500 years.
PS: The Portuguese military overthrew the Salazar dictatorship because it wasn’t prepared to bear the cost of colonial wars any longer, which were decimating the male population and dragging this tiny country down economically.