Catarina Soares Martins (born 7 September 1973) is a Portuguese politician and actress. She is the national coordinator of the Left Bloc since 2012 and has been a member of the Assembly of the Republic for the Left Bloc since 2009. She trained as a

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Lingui ...

and is active in

theater Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actor, actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The p ...

Early life and career

Catarina Martins was born in

Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropo ...

on 7 September 1973. She did three years of her

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ed ...

education in

São Tomé and Príncipe São Tomé and Príncipe (; pt, São Tomé e Príncipe (); English: " Saint Thomas and Prince"), officially the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe ( pt, República Democrática de São Tomé e Príncipe), is a Portuguese-speaking i ...

and

Cape Verde , national_anthem = () , official_languages = Portuguese , national_languages = Cape Verdean Creole , capital = Praia , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , demonym ...

, and returned to Portugal when she was 9 years-old. She enrolled in the Faculty of Law of the

University of Coimbra The University of Coimbra (UC; pt, Universidade de Coimbra, ) is a public research university in Coimbra, Portugal. First established in Lisbon in 1290, it went through a number of relocations until moving permanently to Coimbra in 1537. The ...

but abandoned her course on the third year. Afterwards she obtained a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

in Languages and Literature and a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

Linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Lingu ...

. 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 The 2009 Portuguese legislative election was held on 27 September, to renew all 230 members of the Assembly of the Republic. The Socialist Party, led by incumbent Prime Minister José Sócrates, won the largest number of seats, but didn't repeat ...

. On 11 November 2012, Catarina Martins and

João Semedo João Pedro Furtado da Cunha Semedo (20 June 1951 – 17 July 2018) was a Portuguese physician and politician. He was born in 1951 in Lisbon, where he attended Camões Secondary School and graduated from the Faculty of Medicine of the Unive ...

were elected co-coordinators of the Left Bloc, successors to

Francisco Louçã Francisco Anacleto Louçã (; born 12 November 1956 in Lisbon) is a Portuguese economist and politician. Biography He is the second son of António Seixas Louçã, a Portuguese Navy Officer, and his wife Noémia da Rocha Neves Anacleto, lawyer, ...

. Semedo quit on 30 November 2014 and Martins has been since the sole party coordinator. She was re-elected in the

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the April ...

and

2019 elections The following elections were scheduled to occur in 2019. The International Foundation for Electoral Systems has a calendar of upcoming elections around the world, and the National Democratic Institute also maintains a calendar of elections in coun ...

. After the 2015 election the Left Bloc and the

Portuguese Communist Party The Portuguese Communist Party ( pt, Partido Comunista Português, , PCP) is a communist, Marxist–Leninist political party in Portugal based upon democratic centralism. The party also considers itself patriotic and internationalist,Portug ...

(PCP) agreed to support the government formed by

António Costa António Luís Santos da Costa GCIH (; born 17 July 1961) is a Portuguese lawyer and politician serving as the 119th and current prime minister of Portugal since 26 November 2015, presiding over the XXI (2015–2019), XXII (2019–2022) and ...

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

the BE lost 14 of its 19 seats in the Assembly, although Martins was re-elected in the

Porto District The District of Porto ( pt, Distrito do Porto ) is located on the north-west coast of Portugal. The district capital is the city of Porto, the second largest city in the country. It is bordered by the Aveiro and Viseu districts to the south, B ...

constituency.

Personal life

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

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Martins, Catarina 1973 births 20th-century Portuguese actresses 21st-century Portuguese politicians 21st-century Portuguese women politicians Left Bloc politicians Living people People from Porto Portuguese stage actresses