António Costa is the new leader of the opposition Partido Socialista and is in poll position to become the next Prime Minister.
The current socialist leader António José Seguro was soundly beaten by Costa, the mayor of Lisbon, in a battle held to elect the next PS candidate for the position of future prime minister.
António Costa won nearly 68% of the 180,000 votes cast by party members last Sunday and he now leads the party into the May 2015 general election.
The diplomatic Costa said that these primaries "did not defeat anyone, but are a victory for all PS sympathisers."
The new Socialist leader said that Portugal starts "a new and decisive step" and said that September 28, 2014 "is the first day of a new majority government. This is the first of the final days of the current government. "
António José Seguro, who only managed just over 31% of the vote, resigned as promised, shocked at the scale of his defeat, “I keep to my word, today I step down as the secretary-general of the PS. It was an honour to serve Portugal,”
It was the first time in Portugal that a party has held an internal election to select a candidate for future prime minister, should it win the next election of course.
In the Algarve, Costa gained over 80% of the votes, a percentage beaten only by the Açores figure of 87%. In fact there was only one region in Portugal that voted by a majority for Seguro, that was Guarda.
António Costa could be the fourth Partido Socialista prime minister, the last one was Francophile José Sócrates who served himself for six years to 2011 when he pootled off to France to indulge his taste for fine dining, having signed the documents that invited the Troika to fund the country.
