Marisa Matias meets Brian Maguire over a coffee to talk about the return of Silvio Berlusconi, the Israel-Palestine issue, and her 2016 presidential election campaign in Portugal.

She also gives her backstory, revealing the life experiences which shaped her political views and motivated her to run for public office. Marisa Matias is a Portuguese MEP in the GUE / NGL Group. Matias

ran in Portugal’s 2016 presidential elections, finishing third with 10.12{3d2fbd6c635b91715c9a1b391df9b4208d524b62a74c0b6ce8abd3b19bbe9632} of the votes – the best result of any woman in Portugal’s presidential elections. She is the European Parliament’s Chair of the Delegation for relations with the Mashreq countries, and a Member of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs.