President Anibal Cavaco Silva Name Antonio Costa Preceded by Daniel Sanches | Succeeded by Fernando Medina | |
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Preceded by Maria de Belem Roseira (Acting) Preceded by Marina Ferreira (Acting) Spouse Fernanda Maria Goncalves Tadeu (m. 1987) Parents Maria Antonia Palla., Orlando da Costa Children Catarina Tadeu da Costa, Pedro Miguel Tadeu da Costa Siblings Ricardo Costa, Isabel dos Santos da Costa Similar People Pedro Passos Coelho, Anibal Cavaco Silva, Antonio Jose Seguro, Jose Socrates, Paulo Portas | ||
Portugal s political turmoil set to end as antonio costa named prime minister
António Luís Santos da Costa, (born 17 July 1961) is a Portuguese lawyer and the Prime Minister of Portugal, in office since 26 November 2015. Previously he was Minister of Parliamentary Affairs from 1997 to 1999, Minister of Justice from 1999 to 2002, Minister of State and Internal Administration from 2005 to 2007, and Mayor of Lisbon from 2007 to 2015. He was elected as Secretary-General of the Socialist Party in September 2014.
Contents
- Portugal s political turmoil set to end as antonio costa named prime minister
- Asia times interview with portuguese prime minister antonio costa
- Early life and education
- Political career
- Mayor of Lisbon 20072015
- Candidate for Prime Minister 20142015
- Prime Minister of Portugal
- Personal life
- Civil awards and decorations
- Xvii congresso nacional do ps ant nio costa 09 04 2011
- References
Asia times interview with portuguese prime minister antonio costa
Early life and education
Costa was born in 1961 in São Sebastião da Pedreira, Lisbon, the son of writer Orlando da Costa. His father was of Indian (Goan), Portuguese, and French descent. His mother was Maria Antónia Palla, a Portuguese journalist and recognized feminist activist.
Costa studied law in the 1980s in Lisbon, when he first entered politics and was elected as a Socialist deputy to the municipal council. He later practiced law briefly from 1988, before entering politics full-time.
Political career
Costa's first role in a Socialist government was as Minister of Parliamentary Affairs under Prime Minister António Guterres between 1997 and 1999. He was Minister of Justice from 1999 to 2002.
Costa was a Member of the European Parliament for the Socialist Party (PES), heading the list for the 2004 European elections after the dramatic death of top candidate António de Sousa Franco. On 20 July 2004 he was elected as one of the 14 Vice-Presidents of the European Parliament. He also served on the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs.
Costa resigned as an MEP on 11 March 2005 to become Minister of State and Internal Administration in the government of José Sócrates following the 2005 national elections.
Mayor of Lisbon, 2007–2015
António Costa resigned all government offices in May 2007 to become his party's candidate for the municipality of Lisbon, Portugal's capital city. He was elected as Lisbon's mayor on 15 July 2007 and reelected in 2009 and 2013, with a bigger majority each time. In April 2015 he resigned, already as Secretary General of the Socialist Party and the party's candidate for Prime Minister, to prepare the campaign for the October 2015 general elections.
Candidate for Prime Minister, 2014–2015
In September 2014, the Socialist Party chose Costa as its candidate to be Prime Minister of Portugal in the 2015 national elections; in a ballot to select the party's candidate, gaining nearly 70 percent of the votes, he defeated party leader António José Seguro, who announced his resignation after the result. By April 2015, he stepped down as mayor to focus on his campaign.
During the campaign, Costa pledged to ease back on austerity and give more disposable income back to households. He proposed to boost incomes, hiring and growth in order to cut the budget deficits while scrapping austerity measures and cutting taxes, asserting that would still allow deficits to reduce in line with the Euro convergence criteria. Also, he pledged to roll back a hugely unpopular hike in value added tax on restaurants and reinstate some benefits for civil servants.
Prime Minister of Portugal
On 4 October 2015, the conservative Portugal Ahead coalition that had ruled the country since 2011 came first in the elections winning 38,6% of the vote, while the Socialist Party came second with 32,3%. Passos Coelho was reappointed Prime Minister the following days, but António Costa formed an alliance with the other parties on the left (the Left Bloc, the Portuguese Communist Party and the Ecologist Party "The Greens"), which altogether are a majority in the Parliament, and toppled the government on 10 November (the People–Animals–Nature party also voted the motion of rejection presented by the left alliance). After toppling the conservative government, Costa was chosen to be the new Prime Minister of Portugal by President Cavaco Silva on 24 November and assumed office on 26 November.
Personal life
António Costa's paternal grandfather, Luís Afonso Maria da Costa, was a Goan Catholic and his father was the writer and poet Orlando da Costa. He also has French descent through his father. His mother is the writer Maria Antónia Palla. His half-brother by his father's second marriage is the journalist Ricardo Costa.
In 1987, Costa married Fernanda Maria Gonçalves Tadeu, a teacher. The couple have a son and a daughter.
Costa is an avid Benfica fan, being a frequent attendant to the games as Lisbon mayor, as opposed to Sporting Lisbon's. He also accompanied Benfica to both Europa League finals, in 2013 and 2014.