Alfredo Nobre da Costa


Alfredo Jorge Nobre da Costa was a Portuguese engineer and politician who briefly served as prime minister of Portugal from August to November 1978.
A moderate independent centre-left politician, he was appointed by President António Ramalho Eanes to serve as prime minister, which would finish the four-year legislative term which had been initiated in the 1976 Portuguese legislative election. His cabinet consisted of independents. However, it failed to gain a majority in the Assembly of the Republic, and Nobre da Costa resigned a few weeks after being sworn in. He was replaced by Carlos Mota Pinto.
He was just the second head of government of Indian origin outside India, due to his patrilineal family being of Roman Catholic Brahmin lineage from Goa.

Early life

He was the only son of Alfredo Henrique Andresen da Costa, who was Portuguese of Italian, French, Danish and Goan ancestry, and Maria Helena Nobre. He graduated from Instituto Superior Técnico.

Personal life

He married Maria de Lourdes de Carvalho e Cunha Fortes da Gama on 5 May 1951 and had a single daughter, Vera Maria Nobre da Costa. He died in 1996 after a long illness. At the time of his death, he held the position of chairman at the engineering firm EFACEC.

Honours