In 1979, Europe was in a period of economic recession, high inflation rates, high unemployment rates and an almost unavoidable oil crisis. During this period of social turmoil, British Conservative Party leader Margareth Thatcher took power in Britain.
Thatcher was the first woman to hold the post of British Prime Minister. Early in his term, he carried out a series of measures and changes, announced a plan for the reduction of taxes and began to control and carry out institutional reforms in unions labor. These reforms earned her the nickname “Iron Lady”.
The Prime Minister remained in office from 1979 until 1990, that is, she held the position for 11 years. For the first five years, his government measures and strategies did not result in improvements in the British economy; on the contrary, many scholars have said that Britain has entered a time of greater economic recession. However, other scholars, who agree with a liberal-conservative political vision, vehemently defended the Thatcher government.
The first five years of Margareth Thatcher's first term were quite troubled by her anti-communist policy. Thatcher's first government was marked by several strikes and demonstrations by labor unions. But her intervention in the Falklands War (War between England and Argentina) in 1982 increased her popularity. Thatcher won her first re-election in 1984 as a result.
After her first term, Thatcher promoted a program of privatization of state-owned enterprises and continued to radically combat labor union movements. The British Prime Minister became one of the forerunners of neoliberalism.
In 1984, she did not negotiate the release of political prisoners and suffered an attack on her life, carried out by the terrorist group IRA (Irish Republican Army). Leaving the attack unscathed, it gained strength and committed even more to capitalism. She once said: “Greed is a good” – that phrase is the clear agreement that the “Iron Lady” had with fierce capitalist competition.
In the late 1980s, Margaret Thatcher continued her rule rigidly and uncompromisingly. It managed to control inflation and accelerated the appreciation of the English currency, but failed to lower the unemployment rate. Her second re-election took place in 1989, however her relationship with the party was not good, which led to her resignation in 1990. Further accentuated by the victory of the US president, George Bush, who was not a Thatcher sympathizer, one of the reasons for the resignation was the loss of external support from the United States of America.
The “Iron Lady” took over as British Prime Minister in 1979, during the Cold War, and left British political power in 1990, after the fall of the Berlin Wall (end of the Cold War).
Margareth Thatcher died on April 8, 2013, aged 87, as a result of a stroke.
Leandro Carvalho
Master in History
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/historia/margareth-thatcher.htm
