Municipal Library Elevator Coup
The Municipal Elevator, also referred to as the Library Elevator as seen from the Calçada de São Francisco
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| Date | January 28, 1908 |
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| Location | Lisbon, Portugal |
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| Outcome | Arrests initially, leading to the Lisbon Regicide |
The Municipal Library Elevator Coup (Portuguese: Golpe do Elevador da Biblioteca), also known as The Elevator Coup (Intentona do Elevador) or 28 January 1908 Coup (Golpe de 28 de Janeiro de 1908), was the name given for the attempted coup d'état by members of the Portuguese Republican Party and Progressive Dissidency against the administrative dictatorship of Prime Minister João Franco (and the political ascendancy of the Liberal Regenerator Party). The event was not confined to the Municipal Library Elevator, but was so named for the arrest of many conspirators at the structure on the afternoon of January 28, 1908. Although the coup was prevented by government forces, it failed to capture all the conspirators, which contributed to the assassination of the monarch Carlos I of Portugal and the heir to the throne, the Prince Royal, Luís Filipe. These events would continue legislative instability and lead to the Portuguese First Republic, the raison d'être of the coup conspirators.
Since King Carlos I of Portugal had decided to support the Liberal-Regenerator leader João Franco and allow him to run the government as an administrative dictatorship (without parliament, but maintaining civil liberties), the parties in the Cortes had vocally rebelled. The traditional parties (the Regenerator and Progressive Parties) were the most critical, since they were fearful of losing their political clout within the rotativist system that existed (an inefficient system of rotating governments, where the main parties would alternate in government, through gentlemen's agreements). The Progressive Dissidency, who had been created exclusively by José Maria de Alpoim to obtain power, was likewise positioned in a way to remain on the fringes of power. Although it was officially monarchist, the Party and its leader were willing to abandon its platform and scruples in order to align itself with the Portuguese Republican Party, at the time a radical group of socialists, anarchists and nationalists intent on taking power by force. João Franco, was also interested in marginalizing the Republicans, by co-opting many of the planks of the other parties in order to form a program that would remove the political instability that existed and maintain power. The election of April 5, 1908, which could have ushered in a legislative victory for João Franco's Liberal-Regenerators, and possibly install a functional parliament, united the leaders of the Dissidency and Republican Party in a conspiracy to take power by force. For this the Dissidency provided the money and arms, and the Republicans, with their contacts within Portuguese secret societies (principally the Carbonária and Masonry) would provide the men.
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