Ana Catarina Mendes
Ana Catarina Mendes is a Portuguese politician from the Socialist Party (PS). She was born on January 14, 1973, in Coimbra, Portugal. She studied law at the University of Lisbon and earned a master’s degree in New Frontiers of Law from ISCTE.
Her political career began in Almada, where she was a councillor from 1993 to 1997. In 1995 she was elected to Portugal’s Assembly of the Republic representing Setúbal, a position she held for many years. Mendes led the PS in Parliament starting in 2019. She also served as president of the Setúbal District Federation of the Socialist Party from 2014 to 2015 and was the party’s Deputy Secretary-General from 2015 to 2019.
From March 30, 2022, to April 2, 2024, she was Minister of Parliamentary Affairs in Portugal’s XXIII Constitutional Government under Prime Minister António Costa. In 2024 she was elected a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Portugal and was sworn in on July 16, 2024. In the European Parliament she sits on the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) and the Subcommittee on Security and Defence (SEDE), and she is a substitute on the Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET). In June 2024 she was elected Vice President of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats.
Personal life: Mendes was married to Paulo Pedroso from 2006 until 2020 and they have two children. Her brother António Mendonça Mendes and sister-in-law Patrícia Melo e Castro have held government roles.
This page was last edited on 1 February 2026, at 20:54 (CET).