Meritxell Batet Lamaña (Catalan pronunciation: [məɾiˈtʃeʎ βəˈtɛt]; born 19 March 1973) is a Spanish jurist, politician, and member of the Socialists' Party of Catalonia (PSC), who served as President of the Congress of Deputies from 2019 to 2023.

[1] In 1995 she graduated in Law from the Pompeu Fabra University where she also took doctorate courses, and presented her thesis Participation, deliberation and transparency in the institutions and bodies of the European Union.

[4] In 2007 she received a German Marshall scholarship to stay in the United States and visit various social centers, universities and democratic institutions in different cities.

She explained in interviews that when she obtained a scholarship from the Generalitat to study for her doctorate at university, her thesis supervisor, Josep Mir, told her that Narcís Serra, then first secretary of the PSC, was looking for someone to coordinate his secretariat who was not a party militant but an independent.

[6] In July 2014, she was appointed Secretary of Studies and Programs in the Federal Executive Commission of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), assuming her first position in the organization.

[9] In April 2016, she agreed to head the PSC's list for Barcelona in the general election called for the month of June, following the resignation of Carme Chacón as a candidate again.

[12] Felipe VI formally appointed her by royal decree on 6 June as holder of the portfolio of Minister for Territorial Policy and Civil Service.

[20] In August 2005, in the Cantabrian town of Santillana del Mar, she married José María Lassalle, a member of parliament for Cantabria of the PP, with whom she has two twin daughters.