Antonio Costa

This article deals with the politician António Costa. For other people, see Antonio Costa .

António Costa (2014)

António Luís Santos da Costa [ɐn'tɔnju ɫu'iʒ‿ʃɐ̃tuʃ kɔʃtɐ] (born July 17, 1961 in Lisbon ) is a Portuguese lawyer and politician who has been Prime Minister since November 26, 2015 . He is also currently General Secretary of the Socialist Party .

From 2007 to 2015 he was Lord Mayor of the Portuguese capital Lisbon . He had previously headed ministries in various governments, most recently in the cabinet of the socialist José Sócrates . On November 24, 2015, he was commissioned by President Cavaco Silva to form a government .

Life

origin

António Costa's family comes from Goa Catholics on his father's side , members of Indian Brahmins who have converted to Catholicism from the city of Margao in the Indian state of Goa , which was a colony of Portugal for several centuries. António Costa's father was the well-known writer and politician Orlando da Costa . António Costa has been a member of the Socialist Party (PS) since his youth. He studied law at the Law Faculty of the University of Lisbon . He completed his internship in the office of Jorge Sampaios , who later became President. He then obtained a postgraduate degree in European law from the Catholic University of Lisbon . From 1982 to 1984 he was chairman of the Association of Law Students of Lisbon University ( Associação Académica da Faculdade de Direito de Lisboa , AAFDL), and in 1986/87 he was the editor of the AAFDL newspaper.

job

After completing his studies, he mainly worked as a lawyer. In addition, he was involved in the Socialist Party. Between 1982 and 1993 he was a member of the Lisbon City Assembly and between 1991 and 1995 a member of the Portuguese Parliament ( Assembleia da República ) . Due to his greater political commitment, he also performed other additional tasks. Between 1993 and 1995 António Costa held the office of a city council in Loures , and between 1995 and 1997 he was State Secretary in the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs under the government of the socialist Guterres . From November 1997 he took over the same ministry and was also responsible for Expo 98 in Lisbon. Also in the second Cabinet Guterres António Costa took over a resort: Between 1999 and 2002 he headed the Department of Justice.

After the socialists left the government, António Costa took over the duties of the parliamentary group leader of the Socialist Party in the Portuguese parliament between 2002 and 2004. In June 2004 he became a member of the European Parliament for the Party of European Socialists (PES) in the European Parliament , where he was one of 14 vice-presidents.

After the Socialists' renewed victory in the 2005 parliamentary elections , the newly elected Prime Minister José Sócrates appointed him as one of the three ministers of state in his government, with responsibility for internal affairs. In return, António Costa resigned from the European Parliament. The main contents of his program included the fight against terrorism and the forest fires that are common in summer, as well as improving the situation of immigrants and improving road safety.

Mayor of Lisbon

Since the then Mayor of Lisbon, Carmona Rodrigues, had to resign due to a corruption scandal in May 2007 , early local elections were necessary. The Socialist Party proposed the politically experienced António Costa, who then resigned as Minister of the Interior to lead the election campaign. His successor as Minister of the Interior was Rui Pereira . In the election on July 15, 2007, the Lisbon-based António Costa voted with a relative majority of 29.54 percent, and the turnout was a negative record of 37.39 percent. For the first time in 31 years he won a majority for the Socialist Party in all 53 municipalities of Lisbon.

Costa also managed to be re-elected with 44 percent in the regular local elections in 2009. In 2013 he won again with an absolute majority of 50.9 percent. On April 1, 2015, he resigned from his post in order to concentrate fully on his work as General Secretary of the PS.

Secretary General of the PS

On September 28, 2014, António Costa was chosen as the top candidate for the 2015 parliamentary election in a one-time vote by members. He prevailed against the then acting General Secretary António José Seguro . Subsequently, Costa also became General Secretary of the PS.

Prime Minister of Portugal

Portuguese President Cavaco Silva commissioned Costa to form a government on November 24, 2015. Costa replaced the center-right government of Pedro Passos Coelho , which had lost its majority in the parliamentary elections on October 4th . Costa had previously with the PS refused to support a minority government Passos Coelhos and stopped his reappointment as Prime Minister by a vote of no confidence with the votes of the other two left parties in parliament. Costa formed a minority government that is supported by the other left parties in parliament, the left bloc and the alliance of communists and greens . There are separate tolerance agreements with each of them. On November 26, 2015, Costa was sworn in as Prime Minister together with his government.

After the parliamentary elections in 2019 , he formed a minority government on October 26, 2019.

Private

António Costa is married and has two children.

Web links

Commons : António Costa  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Short biography on the website of the Portuguese government (Portuguese, English)
• Image by António Costa
• Entry on António Costa in the European Parliament 's database of deputies

Individual evidence

1. ↑ António Costa is Portugal's new head of government , nzz.ch, accessed on November 24, 2015
2. ↑ António Costa, about político para além da cor da pele . In: Público (online edition), November 24, 2014
3. ^ Program of the Ministry of the Interior ( Memento of October 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
4. ↑ António Costa vence eleições com 29.5 por cento dos votos ( memento of July 30, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) , [António Costa wins the elections with 29.5 percent]. In: Público , July 15, 2007
5. ^ Rui Gaudêncio: António Costa vence em Lisboa, Rui Rio vence no Porto. In: Público. October 11, 2009. Retrieved May 28, 2014 (Portuguese). 
6. ↑ Inês Boaventura: Costa reclama “melhores resultados alguma vez alcançados por um partido” nas autárquicas em Lisboa. In: Público. September 30, 2013. Retrieved May 28, 2014 (Portuguese). 
7. ↑ António Costa vai receber salário do PS . observador.pt. from April 1, 2015 (pt)
8. ↑ Portugal's socialists rely on Costa . kul-magazin.li. from September 29, 2014
9. ↑ António Costa is Portugal's new head of government , nzz.ch, accessed on November 24, 2015
10. ^ Tilo Wagner: Socialist government sworn in. Deutschlandfunk (online), November 27, 2015, accessed on December 5, 2015 . 

predecessor	Office	successor
Pedro Passos Coelho	Prime Minister of Portugal since November 26, 2015	-