Generals Vicente de Freitas and Ivens Ferraz attempted, through their action while in government (until 1930), to regenerate the Republic through a simultaneous strengthening of the executive branch, of public order, and of the State’s authority, taking care not to destroy the basic features of a democratic regime. However, the prestige acquired by Salazar through his financial policies allowed him to gather up the support of the more conservative elements within the army, notably President Carmona, in order to deprive the reforming republicans of power and so create an authoritarian regime in Portugal. On January 1930 General Domingos Oliveira was entrusted with the formation of a government which marked a new departure. Still limited, officially, to the Finance portfolio, Salazar had become the de facto ideological and political leader of the dictatorship. He was asked to form a government in 1932. Already in 1930 a civilian structure capable of harnessing the support of all conservative forces that approved of the nascent regime was created. This União Nacional (UN) was conceived initially as a civic association, although it carried out the typical functions of a political party. Despite this, it was destined never to control either the government or the State (Cruz, 1988).