Political status of the Azores
During a media conference in Ponta Delgada on November 8, 1974, Mota Amaral and the PPD presented the basic ideas of the Political-Administrative Statute of the Autonomous Region of the Azores.
Meetings between existing rural-urban groups, and later the first insular conference (which included representatives from Madeira) held in Angra do Heroísmo on March 1–2, 1975, were made in order to find an equilibrium that would permit the development of the Azores.
The failure of a right-wing coup on March 11, 1975 in Lisbon initiated in Portugal the period known as the Ongoing Revolutionary Process (Processo Revolucionário Em Curso), and in the Azores there were signs of instability.
Meanwhile, instability was aggravated by separatist protests and the surge of the Azorean Liberation Front (Frente de Libertação dos Açores, FLA).
These movements grew after the April 1975 meeting in Angra, which envisioned the creation of a Province of the Azores (Província dos Açores), and the abolition of the General Councils.
On June 6, 1975 a protest took place in Ponta Delgada over the situation of local farmers, which quickly turned into a pro-independence rally that called for the resignation of the civil governor, António Borges Coutinho.
In October 1975, in an environment of great tension and motivated by their attacks on the headquarters of the Leftist parties, as well as the expulsion of their militants, the Azorean Liberation Front presented their Principles, which defended the complete independence of the Azores.
The 1st Regional Legislature had its first session in the city of Horta on July 21, 1976, and it was inaugurated by then President of the Republic General Ramalho Eanes in a solemn ceremony.
In a ceremony in Ponta Delgada, on September 8, 1976, and in the presence of a representative of the Republic General Galvão de Figueiredo, President João Bosco Soares da Mota Amaral began his duties, and initiated the constitutional autonomy of the Azores.
The vote, ostensibly a consensus of the major parties of Portugal, led, nonetheless, to the "war of flags", which took the form of a series of serious protocol incidents between regional and national officials in a general display of ill-feeling.
The current statute replaced the provisional status that had been granted, at the time of the Carnation Revolution by the legislative decree 318-B/76 of 30 April, later amended by 427-D/76 of 1 June.
The outline of these principals was contained in the decree of 2 March 1895, promulgated at the urging of the Azorean, Ernesto Hintze Ribeiro, then Prime Minister of Portugal.
If the national legislature rejects the text or make changes to it, the bill is returned to the Azores for regional assessment and the writing of an explanation or rebuttal.
As a result of Constitutional Law No.1 (24 July 2004), which consolidates and significantly broadens the legislative capacity of the Azorean Parliament, the autonomy status of the Azores is being reviewed.
The text of an Azorean sovereignty law, approved unanimously by the Assembly of the Republic on 4 July 2008, encountered opposition from President Aníbal Cavaco Silva, who submitted the measure to the Constitutional Court as a preventive tactic.
The bill was returned to the Assembly, which finally voted on a version very much like the original; it was passed by a majority, 60% of the members, large enough that it prevented the President from using his veto.
