Days before the revolution, he had written in a report that something was about to happen, he recalls, 50 years later, in an interview with Lusa, at his home in Praia, the capital of Cape Verde.

He was a leader of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC) and, at the same time, a member of the Guinean Government (with functions for Cape Verde), after the unilateral declaration of independence from Portugal, in September 1973.

For the former prime minister and President of Cape Verde, who is almost 90 years old, April 25 "was not a surprise", taking into account the "crisis of the regime" and the military defeats in Guilege, Gadamael and Guidaje, in the operational theater of Guinea.

The context was described in a report written by Pedro Pires, days before April 25, at the request of Aristides Pereira, secretary-general of the PAIGC (who would become the first head of state of Cape Verde), when preparing a trip to Moscow for medical treatment, but which could include contacts with Soviet military for reinforcement of armament.

Pedro Pires ended the document in a premonitory way: "something very serious will happen in Portugal".

And it happened: "Aristides Pereira returned [from Moscow] on April 26, to Conakry, unable to receive treatment, because he thought that the changes were such that he needed to be in his place", he reports.

50 years later, the Portuguese-speaking countries are invited to the celebration at the Assembly of the Republic, in Lisbon, a "joint commemoration that makes sense", says Pedro Pires, because all the stories "have several protagonists" and this is one of them.

"April 25 is the product of the defeat in the colonial war" and the "disaster that led to the Portuguese economy", in addition to the military and social impact, he says.

The colonies are protagonists of this story, but not only, he says, revealing interest in "a fact that has not been worked on: the resistance of the Portuguese people to the colonial war and the regime" and even the role of deserters.

Weeks after April 25, 1974, Pedro Pires led committees that negotiated the independence of Guinea and Cape Verde with Portugal, in a tense world, in which information was passed on a drip, far from today's instant communication.

"We went with the lesson studied", he says, recalling one of the stages of the negotiations, Algiers, in August 1974.

"The Portuguese delegation had its embassy, it had a secret phone. We didn't have a phone, but we used encrypted messages", by telegram, that is, "there was communication, but it wasn't fast".

When reviewing the negotiations, he makes a peremptory assessment: "Within the realm of possibilities, I believe we did our best. In relation to the rest, the fundamental thing in life is to be sincere and honest", so that mistakes are not a crime, he says.

"The Portuguese delegation also worked within the framework of possibility and context", he says, because looking back is easy, but "you couldn't demand someone to work outside of the context".

Pedro Pires says he fits into a generation that "fulfilled its role".

"But we cannot fulfill the role of the next generation and one of the most complicated problems that has existed is the transition of generations", in the same way "that the transition of government and regime is complex", he says, adding that today each citizen is required to have a "critical spirit" in the face of so much information dispersed by digital means.

"There is a before and after April 25, it is a moment of political rupture. It is an authentic revolution, which goes beyond the idea of a coup d'état" and in which overseas Portugal begins to transform itself into a European Portugal, he says.

But, "is Europe in a phase of transition of society, of values", he asks, pointing to the growth of far-right parties.

"And what are the causes", he asks right away, launching an appeal: "it is necessary to understand", because the risk of regressions and changes "is always there" and "nothing is eternal".

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