Today, we remember the 1974 Carnation Revolution. But as memories of dictatorship fade, anti-democratic forces are on the rise

Fifty years ago, on 25 April 1974, a military-led movement in Portugal took down the rightwing authoritarian regime that had governed the country for 41 years. The Carnation Revolution , named after the flowers people offered soldiers on the streets, led the country to democracy and an era of immense social progress – reducing infant mortality and illiteracy rates , for example, which were comparatively very high in 1974. By 1986, Portugal had made enough strides to be able to join the European Communities, now the EU.

I was born in the early 1990s, but even in my generation 25 April is a hallowed anniversary for many. Growing up as a teenager interested in politics generated a strong emotional attachment to a national holiday centred on the celebration of political freedom.

As the country marks 50 years since the end of fascism, people celebrate the coup’s legacy but say the fight must continue

At 4am on 25 April 1974, Filipe Villard Cortez got the signal. He barricaded the door of the Monte Real air base commander’s room and cut his phone line. A few hours earlier, Portugal’s Carnation Revolution had begun.

Cortez was 21 at the time, a commissioned air force officer who wanted the democratisation of Portugal and the end of its colonial rule. In the weeks before the revolution, he had become involved in meetings with the Armed Forces Movement (MFA) – the group that instigated the military coup that toppled Portugal’s authoritarian Estado Novo regime, ending its war to prevent independence in Angola, Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique.

This year’s ‘Olympics of the art world’ features many artists wrestling with ideas of colonialism and its lingering influence

This year’s Venice Biennale is being billed as an event rooted in the now, in a world of conflict and division – or, as one newspaper put it, the celebration of global art will be full of “ war, refugees, destruction ”.

Another theme that runs through many of the pavilions is colonialism: both its legacy in the form of restitution debates, and Europe’s lingering presence – physically and psychologically – in those countries that were formerly colonised.

With Slovakia the latest member to elect a Russia-leaning leader, the EU is increasingly open to hostile interference

The victory for Peter Pellegrini in Slovakia’s presidential election is just the latest triumph for the far right in Europe. Even though the role of president is largely symbolic, his win over his pro-European rival, Ivan Korčok, by a comfortable six-point margin, consolidates the power of the prime minister, Robert Fico. The result is one of a growing number of victories for politicians supportive of Vladimir Putin in Europe.

Public support for the far right is sweeping across the continent. In the Netherlands and Portugal , far-right parties have also increased their vote share in recent national elections. Meanwhile, polling ahead of German local elections, and Austrian and Belgian parliamentary elections this year, suggests they are likely to make gains in these countries too. There is a real possibility that Austria’s elections might see a return to power for the far right, Putin-supporting Freedom party, if another party can be convinced to join it in a coalition. There is a sense across Europe that the far right is gathering momentum and expanding beyond its usual core vote.

Eduardo Aires’s innocuous-seeming branding has become a ‘projectile weapon’ for rightwing leaders – who have manufactured ‘patriotic’ outrage into real political power

In the stylishly converted factory site in Porto that Eduardo Aires calls home, Portugal’s leading graphic designer is poring over the newspapers with growing exasperation.

Much to his professed bemusement, Aires finds himself at the centre of a vitriolic culture war over a new, seemingly inoffensive logo for the Portuguese government that he designed: a block of green, a yellow circle and a red block, arranged in a simple horizontal row.

They can be sacred, space-like, healing or heart-shaped – and anywhere on Earth. Even war can’t get between people and natural springs, as Greta Rybus shows in her latest photobook

Heavy rainfall brings landslides to country’s south-east. Elsewhere, a wild temperature fluctuation in Iberia

Brazil was hit by devastating floods over the weekend that have so far claimed 20 lives in the resultant landslides and mudslides. There was heavy rainfall in parts of the south-east, including Rio de Janeiro, Petrópolis and the larger Espírito Santo region, with hourly rainfall totals of about 20mm recorded in places. Cumulative totals from Friday through Sunday were close to 250mm, particularly along the coast: this is far higher than the monthly average.

Landslides and mudslides occurred across the region, and a number of houses collapsed. Rescue operations are under way to look for people who may have been stranded by the floods. Although there may still be a few showers over the following days, the worst of the rain has now passed.

Portuguese director Susana Nobre explores the sadness of bereavement with deadpan obliqueness in this story about a woman’s reaction to her mother’s death

There’s a studied impassivity to this elegant Portuguese movie about grief from Susana Nobre. It’s a film that maintains its near-affectless deadpan style from first to last, and declines to offer a conventional emotional payoff, or indeed the usual narrative shape that might lead to such a climax – although there is an emotional outpouring of sorts. It isn’t exactly that sadness finds its outlet in oblique or unusual ways (the heavy drinking we see is, after all, a commonplace symptom) but the way it is represented on screen is indirect.

Helena (Raquel Castro) is a production manager on a film shoot, dealing with a difficult director. She is divorced, sharing custody of a teen daughter, and in a relationship with a musician who is away on tour. Her elderly widowed mother, who lives in a Lisbon apartment block called Cidade Rabat, where Helena grew up, is talking openly about her approaching death and wants Helena to live in the flat after she’s gone – an idea that stirs up oppressive emotions.

Democratic Alliance leader must now try to form a government but has vowed not to enter any kind of agreement with far-right Chega party

Portugal’s president has invited Luís Montenegro, the leader of the Democratic Alliance (AD), to try to form a minority government after a long-awaited count of overseas votes confirmed a narrow election victory for the centre-right bloc .

Montenegro was summoned to the presidential palace in Lisbon shortly after midnight on Thursday where President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who has spent over a week consulting party leaders, formally nominated him to head the government.