In September 2021 Jeff Da Costa criticized the government after the record-breaking floods earlier that year. He was pleading for better communication as well as more competence and research into preventive work. It now seems that this statement has cost him his job.

In July 2021 Western Europe experienced extreme floods that had devastating outcomes for many countries including Luxembourg. Fortunately no one died in the Grand Duchy, but many had to be evacuated from their homes. After a month, damages already exceeded €120 million, and insurance companies faced the largest material damage seen in the Grand Duchy.

Jeff Da Costa, a researcher and PhD candidate who studies hydrology and warning systems at the University of Reading, made various media appearances during the weeks after the record-breaking floods hit Europe.

In September 2021, nine weeks after the floods, Da Costa was featured in several news pieces including a television report, radio segments, and articles. The interviews with RTL seem to have cost him his job, as he was allegedly fired due to "political pressure" after he criticized the government and stated their failures in relation to disaster prevention and communication.

At the time of the interviews Da Costa was still in his trial period of an open-ended contract at RSS-Hydro in Dudelange. Prior to the airing of the interview the company and Da Costa’s boss Guy Schumann, never took issue with Da Costa's media appearances. Schumann was even present when the news segment was filmed and, according to Da Costa, was satisfied with the representation of the company. However, Da Costa lost his job within the week.

It took nine months for the story to break on Radio 100,7, in collaboration with Da Costa himself. This is where things get tricky: According to Da Costa he was willing to work out how to prevent further harm to the company’s image, whereas Schumann apparently claimed Da Costa himself felt pressure to leave the company.

Either way, Da Costa was left with nothing. Schumann was supervising his PhD thesis and when Da Costa was fired, he lost not only his job, health insurance and right to unemployment, but also security in his academic future. Schumann was willing to continue his supervision but for Da Costa trust between them was broken.

Since then, Da Costa has moved to the United Kingdom and his university has taken over his tuition fees, but Da Costa still had to figure out how to cover the rest of his expenses without a job.

RTL Today contacted both Da Costa and Schumann for further statement and in a call, Da Costa confirmed the details of the 100,7 article but did not want to give any additional information. Schumann provided us with a written statement in which he said that the decision to let Da Costa go was an internal one and has no business in the public sphere. He emphasizes that there has never been any external pressure on the company to take a particular action.

However in the 100,7 interview, Schumann confirmed that he let Da Costa go to “avoid political pressure” and to protect his company as well as his six employees.

The case has gained a lot of traction and has raised important questions. Can a researcher criticize the Luxembourgish government without fearing unemployment? If there was political pressure, what exactly was the nature of it? This is a question Da Costa could not give us an answer to.

Shortly after the affair became public, MP Sven Clement from the Pirate Party also submitted a parliamentary question directly to the Prime Minister regarding the affair.