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Portuguese politician (born 1973)
Ana Catarina Veiga dos Santos Mendonca Mendes
(born 14 January 1973) is a Portuguese politician of the
Socialist Party
(PS) who has been a member of the
Assembly of the Republic
since
1995
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
.
[1]
Ana Catarina Mendes was elected a
Member of the European Parliament
in the
2024 European election
, and is expected to be sworn-in in the upcoming
Tenth European Parliament
.
[2]
Early life
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Ana Catarina Veiga Santos Mendonca Mendes was born in
Coimbra
on 14 January 1973. She obtained an undergraduate law degree from the
University of Lisbon
and a master's degree in New Frontiers of Law from the
ISCTE ? University Institute of Lisbon
. Mendes led the
Almada
and the
Setubal District
Federation of
Socialist Youth
(Juventude Socialista), the youth wing of the
Portuguese Socialist Party (PS)
. She married
Paulo Pedroso
but they are now divorced.
[3]
[4]
[5]
Political career
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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
Setubal
, a position she continues to occupy. From 2015 to 2019 she served as Assistant 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.
[3]
[4]
[6]
Following the
2022 Portuguese legislative election
, Mendes was appointed as Minister of Parliamentary Affairs.
[1]
Broadcasting
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Since early 2018 Mendes has been a regular political commentator on Portuguese television, beginning with
Televisao Independente
(TVI) and the radio station TSF, then moving to a weekly programme on the
SIC Noticias
television channel, before moving back to TVI.
[7]
[8]
Personal life
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At the time of her appointment to the government in 2022, Mendes’ brother
Antonio Mendonca Mendes
served as Secretary of State for Fiscal Affairs and her
sister-in-law
Patricia Melo e Castro was a member of Prime Minister Costa's staff.
[9]
References
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