Catarina Martins

Catarina Soares Martins (born 7 September 1973) is a member of the Parliament of Portugal for the Bloco de Esquerda party or Left Bloc in English. She has been the party's national coordinator since 2002. She trained as a linguist and is active in theater.

Career

After earning a Ph.D. in Languages and Modern Literatures from Universidade Aberta ("Open University", in Lisbon) and a master's degree from University of Porto, she worked in theater. She is the co-founder of an avant-garde project entitled Companhia de Teatro de Visões Úteis, which began in Porto in 1994.

She 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 the sole party coordinator since.