Portuguese military forces moved into the resort town of Figueira da Foz about 100 miles (160 kms) north of Lisbon during the weekend to protect delegates to the first congress of the Christian Democrat Party -- one of the most right-wing groupings in Portugal at present.

The troops threw a cordon around the congress area when the 200 delegates arrived on Saturday (1 February). They feared extreme left-wing groups might attempt to disrupt the meetings.

The weekend before left-wing rioters had broken up a conference of Portugal's Centre Democrat Party -- with similar principles but a much larger following than the Christian Democrats -- which was taking place in Oporto. In that incident most of the delegates spent a night marooned in the conference building before troops cleared the demonstrators.

Although this weekend's meeting was quieter and there were no incidents around the congress hotel, the ruling Armed Forces Movement warned delegates that they could no longer guarantee their safety if the meeting continued after midday on Sunday (2 February), and so the congress closed a few hours early. But even with the shortened meeting the delegates managed to discuss most of the items on the agenda.