António Costa
| António Costa GCIH |
|
|---|---|
| Secretary-General of the Socialist Party | |
| Assumed office 22 November 2014 |
|
| Preceded by | António José Seguro |
| Leader of the Opposition | |
| Assumed office 22 November 2014 |
|
| Prime Minister | Pedro Passos Coelho |
| Preceded by | António José Seguro |
| Mayor of Lisbon | |
| In office 1 August 2007 – 6 April 2015 |
|
| Preceded by | Marina Ferreira (Acting) |
| Succeeded by | Fernando Medina |
| Minister of State | |
| In office 12 March 2005 – 17 May 2007 |
|
| Prime Minister | José Sócrates |
| Minister of the Internal Administration | |
| In office 12 March 2005 – 17 May 2007 |
|
| Prime Minister | José Sócrates |
| Preceded by | Daniel Sanches |
| Succeeded by | Rui Pereira |
| Minister of Justice | |
| In office 25 October 1999 – 6 April 2002 |
|
| Prime Minister | António Guterres |
| Preceded by | José Vera Jardim |
| Succeeded by | Celeste Cardona |
| Minister of Parliamentary Affairs | |
| In office 25 November 1997 – 25 October 1999 |
|
| Prime Minister | António Guterres |
| Preceded by | Manuel Dias Loureiro |
| Succeeded by | Luís Marques Mendes |
| Assistant Secretary of State of Parliamentary Affairs | |
| In office 28 October 1995 – 25 November 1997 |
|
| Prime Minister | António Guterres |
| Preceded by | Luís Filipe Menezes |
| Succeeded by | José Magalhães |
| Personal details | |
| Born | António Luís dos Santos da Costa 17 July 1961 Lisbon, Portugal |
| Political party | Socialist Party Party of European Socialists |
| Spouse(s) | Fernanda Tadeu (1987–present) |
| Children | Pedro Catarina |
| Alma mater | University of Lisbon |
António Luís dos Santos da Costa, GCIH (born 17 July 1961 in Lisbon) is a Portuguese lawyer and politician who has been Mayor of Lisbon from 2007 to 2015. Previously he was Minister of Internal Administration from 2005 to 2007. He was elected as general secretary of the Socialist Party in September 2014.
António Costa is of Goan descent through his father, the writer Orlando da Costa.[1]
Contents
Early life and education[edit]
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.[2]
Political career[edit]
Costa's first role in a Socialist government was as Minister of Parliamentary Affairs under Prime Minister Antonio Guterres between 1997 and 1999. He became Minister of Justice in 1999 until 2002.[3]
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[edit]
António Costa resigned all government offices in May 2007 to become his party's candidate for the municipality of Lisbon. He was elected as Lisbon's mayor on 15 July 2007 but resigned in 2015 to become general secretary of the Socialist Party.
Candidate for Prime Minister, 2015[edit]
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.[4] By April 2015, he stepped down as mayor to focus on his campaign.[5]
During the campaign, Costa pledged to ease back on austerity and give more disposable income back to households.[6] 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.[7] Also, he pledged to roll back a hugely unpopular hike in value added tax on restaurants and reinstate some benefits for civil servants.[8]
Personal life[edit]
António Costa is of partial Goan descent through his father, the writer Orlando da Costa. His mother was the writer Maria Antónia Palla. His brother by his father's second marriage is the journalist Ricardo Costa.
Married in 1987 to Fernanda Maria Gonçalves Tadeu, a teacher,[9] the couple have a son and a daughter.
References[edit]
- ^ Then Came A Gandhi, outlookindia.com, retrieved 10 September 2015
- ^ Axel Bugge (October 4, 2015), Portuguese Socialist leader Costa candidate for PM Reuters.
- ^ Axel Bugge (October 4, 2015), Portuguese Socialist leader Costa candidate for PM Reuters.
- ^ Andrei Khalip (September 28, 2014), Portugal opposition Socialists choose mayor of Lisbon as candidate for PM in next year's election Reuters.
- ^ Axel Bugge (April 1, 2015), Lisbon Socialist mayor steps down to campaign for Portugal PM Reuters.
- ^ Axel Bugge (September 18, 2015), Portugal election race still in dead heat, no majority win: poll Reuters.
- ^ Andrei Khalip (September 17, 2015), Portuguese PM and Socialist opponent clash over austerity as election nears Reuters.
- ^ Axel Bugge (April 1, 2015), Lisbon Socialist mayor steps down to campaign for Portugal PM Reuters.
- ^ Axel Bugge (October 4, 2015), Portuguese Socialist leader Costa candidate for PM Reuters.
External links[edit]
| Wikimedia Commons has media related to António Costa. |
|
| This article about a Member of the European Parliament is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
| This article about a mayor in Portugal is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
- MEP stubs
- European mayor stubs
- Portuguese politician stubs
- 1961 births
- Government ministers of Portugal
- Living people
- Mayors of Lisbon
- MEPs for Portugal 2004–09
- Portuguese people of Goan descent
- People of Goan descent
- Portuguese agnostics
- Portuguese socialists
- Socialist Party (Portugal) MEPs
- Socialist Party (Portugal) politicians