Porto Jewish community warns: Incoming EU president has history of antisemitism

The Jewish Community of Porto sent a grave warning about incoming President of the Council of the European Union (EU), António Costa, who late last year resigned from his position as Prime Minister of Portugal due to ongoing corruption investigations surrounding his closest associates.

Leaders in the Porto Jewish community claim in a newly-released book that Costa was involved in the persecution of the strongest Jewish community in Portugal and led to the repeal of Portugal’s 2015 Nationality Law (a.k.a. the Sephardic Law), which granted Portuguese citizenship to descendants of Jews forced to leave from the country in the 15th century and in the following centuries.

Half a year after the dismissal of the Portuguese government due to corruption scandals, Costa was named to the role of President of the Council of the European Union, one of the three most important leadership posts of the EU.

The Jewish community in Porto has compiled an in-depth report which it has released on Amazon for free titled, “The Plan! Jewish Life Threatened in Europe,” documenting Costa’s socialist government actions against Jews and the Jewish community and warned that this could now become a continent-wide problem when the former Portuguese prime minister assumes his new EU role later in the year.

“We think it is important to make the story of those who are about to take on a significant role in the European Union known to the general public,” said the president of the Jewish community of Porto, Gabriel Senderowicz. “The European Union has a plan to help promote Jewish life over the coming years. However, this could be threatened by the appointment of a man who has a history of animosity towards Jews, the law, and the Jewish community and tried to shrink and attack it in his home country during his tenure as prime minister.”

“It is vital that Europeans learn the true identity and ideology of Costa and the Jewish world understands the dangers to the continent’s Jewish communities.”