Os Grandes Portugueses

Os Grandes Portugueses
Genre	Documentary
Developed by	Rádio e Televisão de Portugal
Presented by	Maria Elisa
Country of origin	Portugal
Original language(s)	Portuguese
No. of episodes	24
Production company(s)	Rádio e Televisão de Portugal
Release
Original network	RTP 1
Original release	15 October 2006 – 25 March 2007
External links
Website

Os Grandes Portugueses (English: The Greatest Portuguese) was a public poll contest organized by the Portuguese public broadcasting station RTP and hosted by Maria Elisa. Based on BBC's 100 Greatest Britons, it featured individual documentaries advocating the top ten candidates. The final vote took place on 25 March 2007, the winner being António de Oliveira Salazar, Portugal's dictator between 1932 and 1968.

The top ten

Dictator António de Oliveira Salazar, whose programme was presented by Jaime Nogueira Pinto, polled the most (41%); his lifelong communist political opponent Álvaro Cunhal was second (19%), and the diplomat Aristides de Sousa Mendes third (13%).

Salazar is often described, from a right-wing viewpoint, as a model of competence, conservatism, rigor, and public service devotion, despite the authoritarianism of his regime, its suppression of political dissent, and repressive state police. A simultaneous opinion poll conducted by Marktest showed that, given the choice of the finalists, Salazar was the favourite of only 11%.^[1] RTP itself commissioned a simultaneous poll, conducted by Eurosondagem, which ranked Salazar 7th, with 6.6% of the vote, and Afonso I 1st with 21%.^[2] The difference of these statiscally representative polls to the final result suggest that the voting, consisting of voluntary telephone calls, may have been skewed by groups with vested interests.

The 10 most voted-for personalities were revealed on 14 January 2007. All of the 10 finalists are deceased. The highest placed living Portuguese was former president Mário Soares (12th). On 25 March the final results were announced:

1. António de Oliveira Salazar – Dictator between 1932 and 1968 (41.0%)
2. Álvaro Cunhal – Politician (19.1%)
3. Aristides de Sousa Mendes – Diplomat (13.0%)
4. Afonso I – King (12.4%)
5. Luís Vaz de Camões – Poet (4.0%)
6. John II – King (3%)
7. Henry the Navigator – Prince (2.7%)
8. Fernando Pessoa – Poet (2.4%)
9. Marquês de Pombal – Politician (1.7%)
10. Vasco da Gama – Explorer (0.7%)

Name		Birth	Death	Occupation	Name		Birth	Death	Occupation
	Afonso I	1109	1185	Founder and first king of Portugal		Henry the Navigator	1394	1460	Infante and fomenter of the Portuguese discoveries
	Álvaro Cunhal	1913	2005	Communist leader during the Estado Novo regime and during the post-Carnation Revolution political scene		John II	1455	1495	Thirteenth king of Portugal and restorer of the Atlantic ocean and African-coast explorations
	António de Oliveira Salazar	1889	1970	President of the Council of Ministers for 48 years during the authoritarian period of the Estado Novo		Luís de Camões	1524	1580	Epic and lyrical poet, author of the national epic Os Lusíadas
	Aristides de Sousa Mendes	1885	1954	Diplomat who fought against his own government for the safety of Jews living in Europe, during World War II, saving thousands of people.		Marquês de Pombal	1699	1782	Minister of Kingdom of José I and responsible for the reconstruction of Lisbon after the 1755 earthquake
	Fernando Pessoa	1888	1935	Modernist poet and writer widely known for the employment of multiple heteronyms		Vasco da Gama	1469	1524	First explorer to discover the sea route from Europe to India

The other 90

• There are 19 women in the top 100.
• There were 33 living persons in the top 100. A further 33 are predominantly 20th century figures.
• Brites de Almeida (51) is the only (likely) fictional person listed in top 100.

Os Piores Portugueses

The SIC Notícias programme Eixo do Mal (Axis of Evil) held a parallel vote for Os Piores Portugueses (The Worst Portuguese), also won by António de Oliveira Salazar.

References

1. ↑ "O melhor Português de sempre". Marktest.com. Retrieved 10 October 2011. 
2. ↑ "SondagemGrandesPortugueses.pdf" (PDF). Retrieved 10 October 2011.