María del Mar Blanco

María del Mar Blanco Garrido (born 29 March 1974) is a Spanish People's Party (PP) politician. She has served as a member of the Basque Parliament (2009–2012), Congress of Deputies (2016–2019) and Assembly of Madrid (since 2021).

Biography

Born in Ermua, Biscay, Blanco was the younger sister of People's Party councillor Miguel Ángel Blanco, who was kidnapped and murdered by ETA at the age of 29 in 1997.[1] Their parents Consuelo and Miguel, who migrated from the Province of Ourense in Galicia, both died in March 2020; their former died of COVID-19.[2]

Blanco had finished studying tourism shortly before the assassination of her brother.[3] She was elected to the Basque Parliament in the 2009 Basque regional election, 6th in the PP's list in Álava.[4] In the 2012 election, the party fell to five seats in that constituency but still wanted her presence in parliament at the expense of someone further up the list;[5] she relinquished any claim of a seat.[6]

In October 2012, Blanco became president of the Victims of Terrorism Foundation (FVT).[7] She was the 14th of 15 PP members elected by Madrid to the Congress of Deputies in the 2016 Spanish general election.[8] In the April 2019 election, the party fell to seven seats in the capital constituency, but Daniel Lacalle and Andrea Levy renounced their seats to let Blanco and Juan Ignacio Echániz take office.[9]

In the November 2019 Spanish general election, Blanco led the PP in the Álava constituency. With just under 15%, the party elected no members in the constituency for the second consecutive time.[10] She worked as a consultant on housing for the City Council of Madrid until being elected to the Assembly of Madrid in the 2021 regional election.[11]

Around the 2023 Spanish general election, Blanco endorsed the slogan "Let Txapote vote for you" against the prime minister of Spain, Pedro Sánchez. "Txapote" was the nickname of Francisco Javier García Gaztelu, one of the murderers of her brother.[12]

References
  1. G. Franco, M. Luisa (10 March 2007). "María del Mar Blanco: «Mis padres sabían que Miguel Ángel iba a morir y aceptaron que no se cediera»" [María del Mar Blanco: "My parents knew that Miguel Ángel was going to die and they accepted that he wouldn't give in"]. ABC (in Spanish). Retrieved 20 March 2022.
  2. Segovia, Mikel (1 April 2020). "Fallece por coronavirus la madre de Miguel Angel Blanco dos semanas después que su marido" [Miguel Ángel Blanco's mother dies of coronavirus two weeks after her husband]. El Independiente (in Spanish). Retrieved 20 March 2022.
  3. Juana, José María de (1998). "Luchar por los derechos humanos: Maria del Mar Blanco Garrido". Cambio 16 (in Spanish) (1396 (AGOST)): 66–68. ISSN 0211-285X.
  4. "Listado de los 75 parlamentarios elegidos hoy en el País Vasco" [List of the 75 parliamentarians elected today in the Basque Country]. El Diario Vasco (in Spanish). 2 March 2009. Retrieved 20 March 2022.
  5. "Mari Mar Blanco será parlamentaria, sin haber obtenido escaño" [Mari Mar Blanco will be a parliamentarian, without having obtained a seat] (in Spanish). EITB. 23 October 2012. Retrieved 20 March 2022.
  6. Arias Borque, J. (5 November 2012). "Mar Blanco renuncia al escaño que no consiguió en el Parlamento vasco" [Mar Blanco renounces the seat that she did not win in the Basque Parliament] (in Spanish). Libertad Digital. Retrieved 20 March 2022.
  7. "María del Mar Blanco, nueva presidenta de la Fundación de Víctimas" [María del Mar Blanco, new president of the Victims Foundation] (in Spanish). Noticias de Navarra. EFE. 31 October 2012. Retrieved 20 March 2022.
  8. Calleja, Ignacio S. (27 June 2016). "El PP gana dos escaños en Madrid y el PSOE sube a tercera fuerza" [PP wins two seats in Madrid and PSOE rises to third force]. ABC (in Spanish). Retrieved 20 March 2022.
  9. "Carambola en el PP: Levy y Lacalle dejan paso a Marimar Blanco y Echániz" [Chain reaction in the PP: Levy and Lacalle give way to Marimar Blanco and Echániz] (in Spanish). EFE. 16 May 2019. Retrieved 20 March 2022.
  10. "Álava: EH Bildu gana en votos y Blanco se queda fuera" [Álava: EH Bildu gains in votes and Blanco ends up outside]. El Mundo (in Spanish). EFE. 11 November 2019. Retrieved 20 March 2022.
  11. "Marimar Blanco se despide de su cargo de asesora de Vivienda en el Ayuntamiento al ser elegida diputada regional" [Marimar Blanco resigns from her role as housing consultant in the City Council upon being elected regional deputy] (in Spanish). Europa Press. 19 May 2021. Retrieved 20 March 2022.
  12. Vázquez, Ángeles (11 July 2023). "El lema 'Que te vote Txapote' enfrenta a las víctimas del terrorismo" [The slogan 'Let Txapote vote for you' confronts the victims of terrorism]. El Periódico de Catalunya (in Spanish). Retrieved 11 August 2023.
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