![[Madeira Archipelago Liberation Front (Portugal)]](../images/p/pt}flama.gif)
Last modified: 2014-12-12 by klaus-michael schneider
Keywords: madeira archipelago liberation front | frente de libertacao do arquipelago madeirense | flama | triband | quinas |
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2:3 image by Jorge Candeias, 7 Mar 2005
I think I read somewhere that the flag of FLAMA was just the plain triband
[blue-yellow-blue] whithout any devices in the central stripe… I'm far from
being sure, though…
Jorge Candeias, 10 Aug 1999
The information we have about this movement, active immediately after the revolution of
25 April 1974, is very scarce, and there is no image. The little information we have
is mine and refers doutedly to a simple triband as the flag of FLAMA. We
have more information about the flag of another movement, the Movimento
Democrático de Libertação da Madeira (pt}mdlm.html) and a picture showing a
triband charged at the center with a cross of "quinas".
However, the Público newspaper published at 4 February 2003 a very
interesting photograph that I'm attaching as , and that shows a younger
version of one Alberto João Jardim, the polemic character that
somehow hasmanaged to remain as president of the regional government of Madeira
fromthe very first autonomical government to this day. This fellow appears in
the photo dressed with a sweater that has the incription "Madeira Minha
Pátria" (Madeira, My Fatherland) and the flag with the cross of quinas
(although smaller than the image by António Martins-Tuválkin
shows it. One could assume that this is a MDLM seater, but the article that comes
with the picture the following is written (my comments and precisions
between square brackets):
"The arrival of Alberto João Jardim to the presidency of the regional
government coincides with the end of terrorist activities attributed to the
Frente de Libertação do Arquipélago da Madeira (Flama) which congregated
radical sectors of the Madeira right wing and some leaders of the PPD
[today, PSD] and CDS [today CDS/PP] political parties. “The idea of a
certain approximation between Flama and the PPD sets in, since this party
was practically alone in the public expression of the autonomist
indocrination”, says [Magalhães Mota, co-founder of the PPD, interviewed
for the article].
Jardim let himself be photographed wearing the sweater of that separatist
movement, with the flamist inscription “Madeira, minha pátria”. he adopted
the blue and yellow flag as the official regional flag, replacing the
lusitan quinas by the Cross of the Order of Christ, after a suggestion
made by Dom Francisco Santana, appointed bishop of Funchal at the end of
the Portuguese dictatorship [no longer under Salazar, I think; probably
under Marcelo Caetano]."
So, it seems that the information we have , both by me and by Jaume
Ollé, attributing the flag with the quinas to the MDLM, is wrong.
Apparently, this flag belonged to the FLAMA.
Another explanation, that also has some likelyhood, is that the MDLM and
the FLAMA were one and the same thing (or the FLAMA being the“ armed
wing” of the MDLM, OSLT), sharing a flag, which would be, for them, the
flag of the state of Madeira. I can't tell which explanation is right, but
I find both to be likely. I just leave you with the pictures, the photo of
Alberto João Jardim and my rendition of the FLAMA flag (see above).
This fragment of article also has some information about the origin of the
flag of Madeira (hum... and now I get to the conclusion that I should have
noted down the name of the author of this article, and not only the date
and the source... my bad... :( ).
Jorge Candeias, 7 Mar 2005
