António dos Santos Ramalho Eanes (born 25 January 1935) is a Portuguese general and politician who was the president of Portugal from 1976 to 1986.
Born at Alcains, Castelo Branco, he is the son of Manuel dos Santos Eanes, a general contractor, and Maria do Rosário Ramalho.
After a long military career in the Portuguese Colonial Wars, Eanes was stationed in Portuguese Angola when the 25 April revolution of 1974 took place. He joined the Movimento das Forças Armadas (MFA or Armed Forces Movement) and after returning to Portugal was made president of RTP (Portuguese public television). In January–February 1975, he emerged as a leader in the "operationals" faction within the Portuguese military that represented the professional interests of the officer corps. Around the same time, he was cultivated by the new US embassy team of Frank Carlucci, appointed in January 1975 by the United States Secretary of State Henry Kissinger at the advice of Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency General Vernon A. Walters with the mission of "getting the communists out of the government and keeping them out"; he joined NATO training programmes following selection by Colonel Robert Schuler and Supreme Allied Commander Europe Alexander Haig, and earned the description of "a boy scout for democracy" from Carlucci's deputy Herbert S. Okun. Eanes then ordered the military counter-coup of 25 November 1975 against the pro-communist radical faction of the MFA, ending that year's "hot summer" (Verão quente).
In June 1976 he was elected President of Portugal with the backing of all political parties except the Communists, and simultaneously held the positions of the commander-in-chief of the Portuguese Armed Forces, chief of the Armed Forces General Staff, and head of the Council of the Revolution. He initially entrusted the Socialist Party with forming a minority government. In 1977, he established an independent commission to examine Portugal's economy, and after dismissing the Socialist PM Mário Soares in August 1978 he appointed three successive technocratic cabinets of Alfredo Nobre da Costa, Carlos Mota Pinto and Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo, none of which lasted more than a year. At the end of 1980 he was re-elected, serving until March 1986. After his presidency, he headed the Democratic Renewal Party (Portuguese: Partido Renovador Democrático), and continued to support the Social Democratic Party (PSD) minority government until 1987. He resigned in 1987 after being defeated by PSD in the legislative election.
He is a member of the Portuguese Council of State, as a former elected president of Portugal.
Eanes is one of the most admired and respected figures in Portuguese public life due to his extreme humility and sense of civic duty. In the words of historian Tom Gallagher, he "had remained a popular figure despite the country's steady drift to the right" and "won the approval of many Portuguese of different persuasions as an honest man who was quite clearly not a member of the political class of Lisbon lawyers or Coimbra University professors which (regardless of the political system in being) had long dominated the country". Eanes once refused the honorary title of Marshal, since he considered the title unnecessary. More recently, in February 2025 he refused a 100,000 euro prize because the Fatherland does not owe anyone anything. Years before Eanes had also refused to receive over one million euro in backpay from his military service. In July of that same year, Eanes suffered a car accident, but was unharmed.
Grand Collar of the Military Order of the Tower and Sword (GColTE, 9 March 1986)
Grand Collar of the Military Order of Aviz (GColA, 10 June 2025)
Knight of the Military Order of Aviz (CvA, 19 January 1972)
Grand Collar of the Order of Prince Henry (GColIH, 20 June 2016)
Grand Collar of the Order of Liberty (GColL, 18 December 2015)
Grand Cross of the Order of Liberty (GCL, 25 April 2004)
Algeria: Collar (Athir) of the National Order of Merit (29 May 2005)
Belgium: Grand Cordon of the Order of Leopold (7 June 1982)
Grand Collar of the Order of the Southern Cross (15 July 1980)
Grand Cross of the Order of Military Merit (15 July 1980)
Bulgaria: Sash of the Order of the Stara Planina (15 July 1980)
People's Republic of the Congo: Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the People's Republic of the Congo (16 May 1984)