Ana Catarina Veiga dos Santos Mendonça Mendes (born 14 January 1973) is a Portuguese

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

of the

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of th ...

(PS) who has been a member of the Assembly of the Republic since

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

and, from 2019, led the party in Parliament. In March 2022, she was appointed Minister of Parliamentary Affairs in the XXIII Constitutional Government, a position she held until after the March 2024 national election. Ana Catarina Mendes was elected a

Member of the European Parliament A member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been Election, elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and S ...

in the 2024 European election, and sworn-in in the

Tenth European Parliament The tenth European Parliament was elected during the 2024 European Parliament election, 2024 elections and is slated to remain in session until the forthcoming 2029 elections. Major events * 6–9 June 2024: 2024 European Parliament elect ...

Early life

Ana Catarina Veiga Santos Mendonça Mendes was born in

Coimbra Coimbra (, also , , or ), officially the City of Coimbra (), is a city and a concelho, municipality in Portugal. The population of the municipality at the 2021 census was 140,796, in an area of . The fourth-largest agglomerated urban area in Po ...

on 14 January 1973. She obtained an undergraduate law degree from the

University of Lisbon The University of Lisbon (ULisboa; ) is a public university, public research university in Lisbon, and Portugal's largest university. It was founded in 1911, but the university's present structure dates to the 2013 merger of the former Universit ...

and a master's degree in New Frontiers of Law from the ISCTE – University Institute of Lisbon. Mendes led the

Almada Almada () is a city and a municipality in Portugal, located on the southern margin of the Tagus River, on the opposite side of the river from Lisbon. The two cities are connected by the 25 de Abril Bridge. The population of the municipality in 20 ...

and the

Setúbal District The District of Setúbal ( ) is a district located in the south-west of Portugal. It is named for its capital, the city of Setúbal. Geography It is delimited by Lisbon District and Santarém District on the north, Évora District on the eas ...

Federation of Socialist Youth (Juventude Socialista), the youth wing of the Portuguese Socialist Party (PS). She was President of the Setúbal District Federation of the

from 2014 to 2015, when she was appointed Deputy Secretary-General. She married Paulo Pedroso but they are now divorced.

Political career

Mendes served as a councillor in the Almada municipality from 1993 to 1997 and was elected to the national Assembly of the Republic in 1995 as a representative of the PS for

Setúbal Setúbal ( , , ; ), officially the City of Setúbal (), is a city and a municipality in Portugal. The population of the entire municipality in 2014 was 118,166, occupying an area of . The city itself had 89,303 inhabitants in 2001. It lies withi ...

, a position she occupied until july, 15h of 2024. She was President of the Setúbal District Federation of the

from 2014 to 2015, when she was appointed Deputy Secretary-General. From 2015 to 2019 she served as Deputy Secretary-General of the PS. From 2019, she was the Socialist Party's first female Parliamentary Leader, in which role she stressed her intention to promote further diversity within the Parliamentary party. Following the

2022 Portuguese legislative election Early legislative elections were held on 30 January 2022 in Portugal to elect members of the Assembly of the Republic (Portugal), Assembly of the Republic to the 15th Legislature of the Third Portuguese Republic. All 230 seats to the Assembly of ...

, Mendes was appointed as Minister of Parliamentary Affairs. On June 26, 2024, she was elected Vice President of the

Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats The Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) is the Political groups of the European Parliament, political group in the European Parliament of the Party of European Socialists (PES). The Progressive Alliance of Socialists and ...

Broadcasting

Since early 2018 Mendes has been a regular political commentator on Portuguese television, beginning with

Televisão Independente TVI - initialism for Televisão Independente ("Independent Television") - is Portugal's fourth terrestrial television channel, launched in 1993. It was the most watched channel in Portugal from 2005 to 2019, and again in 2024. It competes direc ...

(TVI) and the radio station TSF, then moving to a weekly programme on the

SIC Notícias SIC Notícias () is the cable news channel of the Portuguese television network SIC (''Sociedade Independente de Comunicação'') and the second thematic channel of the station. It is available on basic cable and satellite. It replaced CNL (''C ...

television channel, before moving back to TVI. She was replaced by Alexandra Leitão in March 2022, after taking office as Deputy Minister and Minister for Parliamentary Affairs.

Personal life

At the time of her appointment to the government in 2022, Mendes’ brother António Mendonça Mendes served as Secretary of State for Fiscal Affairs and her

sister-in-law A sibling-in-law is the spouse of one's sibling or the sibling of one’s spouse. More commonly, a sibling-in-law is referred to as a brother-in-law for a male sibling-in-law and a sister-in-law for a female sibling-in-law. Sibling-in-law al ...

Patrícia Melo e Castro was a member of Prime Minister Costa's staff.

Member of the European Parliament A member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been Election, elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and S ...

On 16 July 2024, she was sworn in as a

member of European Parliament A member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been Election, elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and S ...

, and is a member of Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) and Subcommittee on Security and Defence (SEDE), as a substitute in Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET).

References