Antonio Costa: A Goan Prime Minister for Portugal? (Times of India) http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/Antnio-Costa-A-Goan-prime-minister-for-Portugal/articleshow/49200092.cms
There will be fingers crossed on these distant shores on Sunday, October 4, when elections are held for all 230 seats in the Portuguese parliament, the Assembleia da Republica. Pedro Passos Coelho's ruling centre-right coalition faces a powerful challenge that has been brewing for years from Antonio Costa, the popular and charismatic three-term mayor of Lisbon, of the Socialist Party. In the balance is Konkani history. The result could be the first Goan head of state. Costa is the 54-year-old son of the ferociously anti-colonial writer, the late Orlando da Costa, whose classic 'O Signo da Ira' is set in the Margao neighborhoods he grew up in the 1930s and 40s. Later, when studying in Portugal, the senior Costa became a staunch opponent of the Salazar dictatorship, member of the (then outlawed) Communist Party, and a well-known Lisbon intellectual who retained life-long affection and connection to his ancestral Goa. His son is a political prodigy. Antonio Luis dos Santos da Costa has been Portugal's minister of parliamentary affairs, minister of justice, and minister of internal administration. He headed his party's list for the 2004 European elections then served on the committee on civil liberties, justice and home affairs, before becoming one of just 14 vice-presidents of the European Parliament. In 2007, Costa gambled big. He ran for Lord Mayor of Lisbon, the troubled centerpiece of an urban area where nearly 30% of Portugal's population lives. After winning, he immediately moved his office to Mouraria, a notoriously crime-infested locality, where he started getting rid of the drug-peddling and prostitution that used to flourish all around. Similar efforts steadily extended city-wide. Despite the prevailing wrenching national economic crisis, Lisbon has transformed: it is now the safest, cleanest, greenest, and most livable big city in Europe. Its mayor has been re-elected three times. When Costa won the right to lead his Socialist Party in September 2014, it seemed certain he would sweep to power in the 2015 elections. But despite the prime ministerial candidate's overwhelming personal popularity, things have not quite turned out that way. One big reason is what happened in Greece. Like other recent European elections, Sunday's referendum revolves around so-called "austerity". But unlike Greece—where the electorate rebelled against economic adjustment being forced on the country by the reviled "troika" of lenders (the European Commission, European Central Bank, and International Monetary Fund)—Portugal has already undergone three years of punishing austerity, and emerged to "say goodbye" to the measures. A few days ago, the country's credit rating was upgraded just below investment grade, an achievement the ruling party is using to deflect criticism about the ongoing recession, record unemployment, and an extraordinary wave of emigration. That last factor is also playing against Costa. Portugal is rapidly emptying of young voters who are his support base. Hundreds of thousands of under-30s have migrated since the financial crisis became entrenched. It's a crisis for the country, which could lose two million people in a few decades, but it is also a crisis for Costa. Almost all of those votes would have gone to him, and now almost none will. In the last election, just 20% of Portuguese living abroad cast absentee ballots. Even if polls show the incumbents leading, don't make the mistake of betting against Costa. In the campaign's last debate, he nimbly forced Passos Coelho on the defensive to win the day. "Over the past four years, the country has reverted 13 years," said Costa, who (while lacking the handlebar moustache) increasingly resembles his father. He said, scornfully, "The government has created a lot of jobs for nurses, but they are in the UK not Portugal." When this writer encountered Costa in a Lisbon museum in 2014, he spontaneously invited me to the stunning 19th century City Hall, where grand portraits of his predecessors looked down upon us. We sat next to each other on a sofa, and the mayor gently asked typical Goan questions about which village I came from, while telling me about his family in Margao. Then he shared with me his dreams about developing much stronger connections between Europe and India, with Goa and Portugal bridging the two great entities. His eyes were shining with excitement. I allowed myself to dream about a newly-elected Costa making his first official trip to India, even all the way to Goa. Orlando da Costa of Margao's son, now the prime minister of Portugal. 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