Catarina Martins

Catarina Soares Martins (born 7 September 1973) is a Portuguese politician and actress. She was the national coordinator of the Left Bloc from 11 November 2012 until 28 May 2023, and has been a member of the Assembly of the Republic for the Left Bloc since 2009. She trained as a linguist and is active in theater.

Martins 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.

Early life and career
Catarina Martins was born in Porto on 7 September 1973. She did three years of her primary school education in São Tomé and Príncipe and Cape Verde, and returned to Portugal when she was 9 years-old. She enrolled in the Faculty of Law of the University of Coimbra but abandoned her course on the third year. Afterwards she obtained a bachelor's degree in Languages and Literature and a master's degree in Linguistics. She also enrolled in a PhD in Language Teaching.

In 1994, she co-founded the theater company Companhia de Teatro de Visões Úteis in Porto.

Political career
Martins was elected to the Portuguese parliament as the first Left Bloc representative from Porto in the 2009 Portuguese legislative election. On 11 November 2012, Catarina Martins and João Semedo were elected co-coordinators of the Left Bloc, successors to Francisco Louçã. Semedo quit on 30 November 2014 and Martins has been since the sole party coordinator. She was re-elected in the 2015 and 2019 elections. After the 2015 election the Left Bloc and the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) agreed to support the government formed by António Costa of the Portuguese Socialist Party (PS). On 27 October 2021, the budget proposed by Costa was rejected by the BE and the PCP, leading to early elections. In the January 2022 Portuguese legislative election the BE lost 14 of its 19 seats in the Assembly, although Martins was re-elected in the Porto District constituency. On 14 February 2023, Martins announced that she won't run for re-election as the National Coordinator of the Left Bloc on party's XIII National Convention in May. On 28 May, Mariana Mortágua was elected Left Bloc new coordinator, thus ending Martins' 11-year tenure as party's leader.

Personal life
Martins is married to Pedro Carreira, an actor trained in Physics, and has two daughters.