Atlantic Sentinel

Tag: António Costa

  • Costa Loses Support of Portugal’s Far Left

    António Costa
    Portuguese prime minister António Costa arrives in Brussels for a European Council meeting, October 16, 2020 (European Council)

    After six years, António Costa’s “contraption” has run out of steam.

    It is what Portugal’s right-wing opposition dubbed the social democrat’s confidence-and-supply arrangements with the far left. In return for concessions like raising the minimum wage and making schoolbooks free, the Communists and Left Bloc were willing to keep Costa in power.

    Costa’s Socialists are eight seats short of a majority in parliament. The Communists and Left Bloc have 29 seats between them.

    By not forming a full coalition, Costa could avoid the stigma of governing with extremists while the Communists and Left Bloc could openly criticize him for not raising salaries in the public sector or overturning the labor market reforms of his center-right predecessor.

    That mutual understanding has collapsed. (more…)

  • Portugal’s Costa Cruising to Victory on Back of Strong Economy

    António Costa
    Portuguese prime minister António Costa arrives in Salzburg, Austria for a meeting with other European socialist party leaders, September 19, 2018 (PES)

    Portugal’s António Costa is almost certain to win reelection on Sunday. Polls give his Socialist Party in the range of 37 percent support against 26-28 percent for the center-right Social Democrats.

    Costa won’t have enough for an absolute majority, but he is expected to continue to govern with the support of the far left. (more…)

  • New York Times Leaves Out Nuances in Portugal Story

    António Costa
    Prime Minister António Costa of Portugal attends a meeting with other European socialist leaders in Brussels, June 28, 2016 (PES)

    A puff piece about Portugal’s left-wing government in The New York Times leaves out an important part of the story: the right-wing government which preceded it.

    It were the liberals and conservatives who implemented the austerity measures that paved the way for the country’s economic revival.

    The New York Times talks about a “humiliating” bailout that supposedly “deepened” Portugal’s misery until, in 2015, it elected the socialist António Costa, who reversed wage and pension cuts, igniting a “virtuous cycle” that put the economy back on a path to growth. (more…)