Prime Minister Antonio Costa of Portugal, whose Socialists are expected to win re-election next Sunday, is a pragmatic tactician who rose to office with the support of the far left.
Following a vote in which his Socialists came in second behind a center-right government that had supervised a harsh EU-imposed austerity program, the former mayor of Lisbon grabbed the reins in 2015.
In an unexpected move, he persuaded two smaller hard-left parties to endorse a minority Socialist government, marking the first time in Portugal that this had been attempted.
Many analysts predicted the government — dubbed the “geringonca” or “contraption” — would last six months at most, but it completed its four-year mandate.
Costa, who is of Indian descent, then led his Socialists to victory in the next election in 2019, although it fell short of an outright majority.
“Antonio Costa is a very experienced and very ambitious politician. In some contexts there are characteristics that are good qualities, in others they can be seen as flaws,” said University of Lisbon political scientist Jose Santana Pereira.
