took over (on 27 December) the functions of President until a new election could be organized early in the new year. All of these actions were in direct violation of the Constitution of 1911, which he himself had helped to draft. During the coup and the early stages of his government, Sidónio Pais enjoyed the support of various labor groups, in exchange for the release of imprisoned comrades, and because of expectations inside the influential National Workers' Union, which looked to position itself as a centre of power of the republican left. Subsequently, Pais issued a set of dictatorial decrees, without consulting the Congress of the Republic, and suspended important parts of the Constitution, giving the regime a markedly presidential image. The President of the Republic in effect became Head of State and leader of the Government, which, significantly, was entirely composed of state secretaries instead of (higher-ranked) ministers. In this new political architecture, which his supporters called a "New Republic", the Head of State was placed in a position of power that had known no parallel in Portuguese history since the end of absolutism. Hence, Pessoa's epithet of a "President-King" was well-deserved. In its objectives and in many of its forms, the New Republic was a precursor of the Estado Novo of António de Oliveira Salazar. In an attempt to normalize relations with the Roman Catholic Church Sidónio Pais amended the Law of Separation of Church and State on 23 February 1918. This prompted an immediate, fierce reaction from traditional Republicans and Freemasons, but garnered widespread support from Catholics, moderate Republicans, and the rural population, then the vast majority of the Portuguese population. This decision also re-established diplomatic relations with the Vatican, which appointed Monsignor Benedetto Aloisi Masella (later to be nuncio in Brazil, cardinal, and camerlengo) as apostolic nuncio in Lisbon on 25 July 1918. In another unconstitutional move, Pais on 11 March 1918 decreed the direct election of the President by plebiscite, through universal suffrage. Making use of his popularity among Catholics, he was elected on 28 April 1918, obtaining 470,831 votes, an unprecedented number. He was proclaimed President of the Republic on 9 May of the same year, without even bothering to consult Congress, and enjoying direct democratic legitimacy, which he used – unsuccessfully – to crush opposition attempts. The decrees of February and March 1918, which because their profound contradiction with the current constitution were