Lara Méndez
Lara Méndez López (born 1972) is a Spanish politician from the Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE). She was a councillor in Cervo from 2003 to 2015 and in Lugo from 2015 to 2024, becoming the first woman mayor of Lugo. In 2024 she was elected to the Parliament of Galicia.
She was born in Männedorf, Switzerland, to Galician parents and moved with her family to Cervo, Lugo, at age four. She studied agricultural engineering at the Lugo campus of the University of Santiago de Compostela.
Méndez joined the PSdeG youth in 2000. In 2003 she was elected to the council in Cervo, where she led the opposition. In 2007 she was elected to the Provincial Deputation and drew attention for declaring assets with no real estate or cars, and only about €4,000 in savings. In 2009 she was wrongly arrested and faced a long investigation over public contracts handled by a department she did not work in.
In the 2015 Lugo local elections, Méndez was second on the PSOE list behind mayor José López Orozco. The PSOE won eight seats, Lugonovo three, and the BNG two; Orozco was not installed due to an indictment, so Méndez became the first female mayor of Lugo. In 2019 she formed a coalition with the BNG, keeping the same overall balance of power. Four years later the coalition stayed in power with the same seats.
In December 2021, Valentín González Formoso became secretary-general of the PSdeG, with Méndez as vice secretary. In March 2025, after the PSdeG’s 15th Congress, she was named Secretary of Organisation under José Ramón Gómez Besteiro.
Méndez resigned as Lugo mayor in January 2024 to run as number two on the PSOE list for Lugo in the 2024 Galician regional election, but she kept her council seat. After being elected to the Parliament of Galicia, she resigned her municipal seat.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 05:28 (CET).