Lisbon: Portugal President Anibal Cavaco Silva has appointed Antonio Costa, an Indian-origin, as the new prime minister after the government formed following the October 4 election. While Costa's Socialist Party did not win the election, he cobbled together a coalition of left parties that has a little more than the majority mark in the 230-member Assembly. His party finished second, with 86 seats.
The former mayor of Lisbon, 54 -year -old Costa is the latest in the large Indian diaspora across the globe to reach top political positions - from Fiji to New Zealand and Guyana and from Mauritius to Malaysia to Singapore to South Africa to Britain, and beyond. The coalition government installed after the election and headed by Pedro Passos Coelho, which did not have a majority, was voted out by the Costa-led opposition, paving the way for the first Socialist government supported by left parties since dictatorship was overthrown in 1974.
Costa, who had promised to ease austerity measures imposed by a large financial bailout package, is likely to have an uneasy tenure. He has had to agree to six conditions laid down by the president, mainly focussing on continuing austerity measures.
