None of the Portuguese I know have that view, and they come from a fairly broad spectrum of contemporary Portuguese politics. Salazar's regime was virulently an

None of the Portuguese I know have that view, and they come from a fairly broad spectrum of contemporary Portuguese politics. Salazar's regime was virulently anti-education and pro-feudalism, in favor of keeping all but a small educated elite in poverty as uneducated peasants. The dictatorship deliberately kept the vast majority of the population from having access to education, to the extent that Portugal had the 2nd-lowest high-school completion rate in Europe, after Malta. Salazar's goal was a nation of illiterate farmers who he and his corrupt cronies could profit from. Not corrupt, you say? Who built all those giant estates during the Estado Novo? It sure wasn't people advancing of their own merit. They were simple thieves wearing jewels and pretentious titles. I don't know any Portuguese today who thinks that Portugal was better off under the previous incompetent kleptocracy. They may have objections to today's government, but Salazar was both malevolent and stupid, a particularly poor combination.