Judite Mendes de Abreu

Maria Judite Pinto Mendes de Abreu (1916–2007) was one of the first five Portuguese women to be elected as a mayor of a municipality. She served as mayor of Coimbra from 1976 to 1979 and as president of the municipal assembly of the same city from 1983 to 1986. An opponent of the Estado Novo dictatorship, she was a supporter of General Norton de Matos in the 1949 national election and a member of women's and other organizations that campaigned against the government. After the overthrow of the Estado Novo by the 1974 Carnation Revolution, she was active in the court that judged crimes committed by the dictatorship. Among other honours, she was awarded the Portuguese Order of Liberty.