(República de Cabo Verde). State of North Africa (4,033 km²). Capital: Praia. Population: 508,000 (2009 estimate). Language: Portuguese (official), Creole dialect. Religion: Catholics 92.8%, Protestants 4%, Muslims 2.8%, others 0.4%. Monetary unit: Cape Verde escudo (100 cents). Human Development Index: 0.705 (118th place). Borders: Atlantic ocean. Member of: CEDAO, UN, AU and WTO, EU associate. According to COUNTRYAAH, Cape Verde is a nation in Western Africa, the capital city of which is Praia. The latest population of Cape Verde is 555,998. REMZFAMILY: Lists and descriptions of main religions and beliefs in Cape Verde, including religion demographics and statistics on Christianity, Islam, Judaism, etc.
HISTORY
The failure of the Portuguese administration in the famine of the 20th century (more than 83,000 starvation deaths between 1903 and 1948) created a strong anti-colonial movement. Its leading representative was the agricultural engineer A. Cabral, trained in Portugal, who founded the Partido Africano da Independência da Guiné e Cabo Verde (PAIGC) in Bissau in 1956, the aim of which was the independence of both countries and their political unification. Cape Verdeans took on important roles in the anti-colonial struggle in Guinea-Bissau. After the revolution in Portugal in April 1974, Cape Verde received autonomy in December 1974 under a transitional government.
In the elections for the Constituent Assembly on June 30, 1975, the PAIGC received 92% of the vote; on July 5, 1975 Cape Verde proclaimed independence. The successor of Cabral, who was murdered on January 20, 1973, as PAIGC leader, Aristides Pereira (* 1923, † 2011), became President (re-elected in 1981 and 1985). After a coup in Guinea-Bissau in 1980 had eliminated the political influence of Cape Verdean politicians, the ruling unity party called itself Partido Africano da Independência de Cabo Verde (PAICV) from 1981, which was shaped by socialist tendencies. The primary goal of their policy was to ensure the survival of the people whose physical existence was threatened by the long drought since 1969, which was only interrupted by a rainy year in 1975. A pragmatic, non-ideological style of politics at home and a strict policy of non-alignment, which included good relations with the USA, served this goal. This foreign policy enabled the delivery of food, but also of capital and technical aid, from various partner countries. Successes have been achieved in administrative reform as well as in education and health care. The Agrarian Reform Act, which was passed in 1982 and came into force in 1983, aimed at the long-term abolition of leases and the creation of an inheritable right of use for the tenants.
The PAICV accepted the growing demand for democratization by introducing the multi-party system in 1990. The parliamentary and presidential elections in 1991 and 1996 were won by the Movimento para a Democracia (MpD), a heterogeneous association of landowners and former PAICV members. A. Mascarenhas Monteiro was elected President in both years. The new government not only repealed the Agrarian Reform Act of 1983 in 1993, but also systematically privatized the state-owned companies established by the PAICV, including telecommunications, v. a. to Portuguese interested parties. The expansion of the infrastructure resulted in rising foreign debts and budget deficits as well as growing social polarization.
In the parliamentary elections in January 2001 and February 2006, the PAICV was again able to win a majority; After the presidential elections of February 2001, the office of president was taken over by the general secretary of the PAICV, P. Pires, who was confirmed in office in February 2006. The PAICV government led by Prime Minister José Maria Neves (* 1960) continued the policy of privatization cautiously, v. a. but it achieved a reduction in foreign debt and the consolidation of the national budget, it pushed the education program (including through a national university) and worked out a plan to combat poverty. The promotion of the cooperative system, which began in the first phase after independence, was v. a. in the fields of agriculture and fisheries. During its first term in office, the government gained international renown through its sustained mediation between the conflicting parties in southern Africa and its efforts to involve Cuba and the USA in these efforts in particular. In July 2008 the country became a member of the WTO.
In the parliamentary elections on February 6, 2011, the PAICV defended the absolute majority of the mandates, Neves remained head of government. In the second round of the presidential elections on August 21, 2011, the MpD candidate J. C. Fonseca prevailed (took office: September 9, 2011). The eruption of the Pico do Fogo volcano in November 2014 caused considerable damage. In the parliamentary elections on March 20, 2016, the opposition MpD won. He was able to win 40 of the 72 parliamentary seats. On April 22, 2016, the MpD leader Ulisses Correia e Silva (* 1962) replaced Prime Minister Neves, who had been in office since 2001, as head of government. J. C. Fonseca received around 74% of the votes a convincing mandate for a further term in the presidential elections on October 2, 2016.
