LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Military vehicles and red carnations return to the streets and squares of downtown Lisbon on Thursday as Portugal reenacts dramatic moments from the army coup that brought democracy 50 years ago.

Thousands of people are expected to attend celebrations of the so-called Carnation Revolution, which ended a stifling four-decade dictatorship established by Antonio Salazar. It also paved the way for Portugal’s 1986 entry into the European Union, then called the European Economic Community.

At the time, the turmoil and political uncertainty in Portugal, a NATO member, caused alarm in Western capitals as the Portuguese Communist Party appeared poised to take power. Moderate parties, however, won at the ballot box.

As a national holiday began Thursday in Lisbon, a column of troops and armored vehicles was due to arrive in a downtown square as part of a reenactment of one of the early stages of the uprising, when units took up planned positions at key places in the capital.