After years of austerity, the people appeared confused and returned a hung General Assembly. After days of consultation, and though the outgoing government of Pedro Passos Coelho did not have a majority nor the possibility of getting the numbers, the same coalition was given the first chance at forming the government. It failed. And following more consultations, the Portuguese President, who in the meantime had announced Presidential elections in January, appointed the former Mayor of Lisbon, Antonio Costa, to take over the reins of the country and guide it through the term.
The interest generated in Goa over the Portuguese elections this year has to do with the Goan origins of one of the principal contenders for the top job – Antonio Costa. Even as a politician and three-time Mayor of Lisbon, Antonio Costa was not as well known in Goa as was his father, the writer Orlando da Costa. It has been only in the last year that Antonio Costa began to receive media coverage in India, and Goa in particular, following his election as the general secretary of the Partido Socialista (Socialist Party) and hence the party’s prime ministerial candidate.
Antonio Costa’s rise to the Palacio de Sao Bento has not been dramatic, except perhaps for the events of the last few weeks, but via a political career whose graph could have only that ending – the Prime Minister of Portugal. He served in previous governments of the Socialist Party and quit when the party fielded him for the European Parliamentary elections, which he won. He then returned to Portuguese politics when he contested, again at the party behest, and won the elections to become Mayor of Lisbon. That is no ordinary position and former mayors of Lisbon had gone on to become Prime Ministers and even Presidents of the Iberian nation. After a couple of terms as mayor, where he earned the goodwill of the people, there could be no debate that Antonio Costa had set his eyes on the Prime Ministerial prize as he had begun working towards it.
In the winter of 2013 there had been speculation of Antonio Costa making a bid for the leadership of the party by challenging Antonio Seguro in the party polls. After a couple of weeks of intense speculation, Costa had dropped out of the race that never was. But it appears as if autumn is the best time for Antonio Costa. The last three autumns have seen him engage in electoral activity that has ended in victory for him. In October 2013, early Autumn, he was re-elected as mayor of Lisbon for the third time. In May of 2014 he challenged Seguro for the leadership of the Socialist Party and sought primaries to decide who would lead the Party in the following year’s elections and hence be the claimant to the Prime Minister’s post should the party win the elections. In the primaries that were held in September 2014, again early autumn, he won by a landslide. The October 2015 elections, yet again early autumn of another year, saw the Socialist party emerge as the single largest party in the general assembly, but since the outgoing coalition had more seats the President gave that formation the first chance to prove its majority in the general assembly, though no party had extended support to the coalition.
The President had been expecting the Socialist Party to extend support to the coalition of Pedro Passos Coelho, but talks between the two parties failed and it was but a foregone conclusion that the Passos Coelho government would not last. In the end it turned out to be the shortest lived Portuguese government, lasting just 11 days.
Antonio Costa has come to power supported by the Communists and the Left Block. His party does not have a majority of its own and the Portuguese media is not confident of this government completing a full term. In that respect, for students of history, this is almost similar to another Portuguese government that was headed by another person of Goan origin – Alfred Nobre da Costa – which lasted less than three months. That government was not formed following an election, but Nobre da Costa had been appointed to head the government after the previous one had fallen. It was in the early years after the Carnation Revolution of April 25, 1974 that overthrew the dictatorship and the political atmosphere in Portugal was still very unstable.
In a coalition government, especially of an alliance that has been cobbled up together after the election results, Antonio Costa has neither political stability nor financial stability on his side. The next few months are going to be a major challenge for the Socialist Party leader who has campaigned against the austerity measures of the previous government. The country had faced job losses and salary cuts, and the future is still very grey. But for the man who sought this top job, it would perhaps be just another challenge of his long political career.
In his book, ‘O Ultimo Olhar de Manu Miranda’, Orlando da Costa’s character Manu is sent to the seminary, not just to become a priest, but to become a bishop. Manu drops out after a year in the seminary. Wonder if when his son entered politics, Orlando da Costa foresaw that he would one day become Prime Minister of Portugal.
(Alexandre Moniz Barbosa is Executive Editor, Herald)
