PANAJI: The exit of Antonio Costa from electoral politics in Portugal has apparently dried up the flow of Goan or Goan-origin politicians in that country.
The recent elections to the Portuguese Asembleia de Republica returned no Goan parliamentarian, or deputado as they are called in Portugal.
The tradition started by the likes of Alfredo Nobre da Costa, continued by Narana Coissoró and much later upheld by António Costa, and others in the intervening period, appears to have ended.
Sources in Portugal say that currently, the only politician of note in Portugal that has Goans links is Ângelo Pereira, member of the Lisbon Municipality.
But being Goan, one does search for needles in haystacks and there is one deputado with a tenuous link to Goa, as per information sent to this correspondent by the admins of the Facebook page Galeria de Goeses illustres (illustrious Goans Gallery), and that is Marcos Perestrelo.
Information collated from Wikipedia says that Perestrelo’s maternal great grandfather was Alfredo da Costa, whose father was a Goan from Margao who had moved to Lisbon in the 1800s.
