Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo

Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo y Peralta-Ramos, 13th Marchioness of Casa Fuerte, MP (born 15 October 1974) is a Spanish journalist, historian, and politician of the People's Party, of French—Argentine descent serving as Member of the Congress of Deputies since 21 May 2019 for Barcelona and Spokesperson of her party in Congress.

This article uses Spanish naming customs: the first or paternal family name is Álvarez de Toledo and the second or maternal family name is Peralta–Ramos.
The Most Excellent

The Marchioness of Casa Fuerte

MP
Pictured in 2019
Spokesperson of the Popular Group in the Congress of Deputies
Assumed office
30 July 2018
Preceded byJosé Antonio Bermúdez de Castro
Member of the Congress of Deputies
Assumed office
21 May 2019
ConstituencyBarcelona
In office
1 April 2008 – 27 October 2015
ConstituencyMadrid
Personal details
Born (1974-10-15) 15 October 1974
Madrid, Spain
CitizenshipArgentine, French, Spanish
Political partyPeople's Party
Alma materUniversity of Oxford

Previously she also served as MP of the Congress for the constituency of Madrid in 9th and 10th Legislature of the Cortes Generales. She is the current Director of International Relations of FAES.[1] Since her return to journalism she writes for the daily newspaper El Mundo.

Biography

Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo y Peralta-Ramos was born in Madrid to a French father and an Argentine mother. She is a national of Argentina, France and Spain.[2]

She is the daughter of Juan Illán Álvarez de Toledo y Giraud, the 12th Marquess of Casa Fuerte, who fought as part of the French Resistance during the Second World War,[3] and of Patricia Peralta-Ramos y Madero. Having spent most of her early life in the United Kingdom and Argentina, Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo has stated on various occasions that she «decided to be Spanish».

After spending the first seven years of her childhood in London, she moved to Buenos Aires, enrolling in the exclusive and prestigious «Northlands School». She returned to the United Kingdom to obtain her university degrees. There, she obtained a post-graduate degree in Modern History at the University of Oxford, being a member of the New College and she also obtained a PhD on that matter with her dissertation about the Bishop Juan de Palafox, Viceroy of New Spain, directed by the Hispanicist historian John H. Elliott. She married Spanish businessman (and her distant cousin) Joaquín Güell (from the family of the Marquesses of Comillas and Counts of Güell) in 20 October 2001. They had two daughters but they divorced in January 2018.[4]

After obtaining her PhD, she became an editor in the daily newspaper El Mundo in September 2000, first in the Opinion section and later in the Economy section. She was also a talk show guest on the Cadena COPE programme «The Morning», hosted by Federico Jiménez Losantos.

Political career

In 2006 she was appointed Chief of Staff of the leader of the People's Party (PP), Ángel Acebes, with the task of advising Acebes regarding political strategy, managing his agenda and coordinating the elaboration of his speeches in parliament.[5] She continued her job as journalist in El Mundo and she was elected the «young global leader» in 2008 by the World Economic Forum to recognise «her professional achievements, commitment to society and her potential to contribute to the forging of the future of the world».

Álvarez de Toledo, who obtained Spanish nationality in 2007, stood for the 2008 general election as a member of the People's Party list for the constituency of Madrid, as number 9 on the list,[6] becoming a Member of Parliament in the 9th Cortes Generales, where she served as a Deputy Spokesperson of the People's Party Parliamentary Group. In 2011 she stood again in the general election, being re-elected MP to the 10th Legislature. She was the Vice President of the Joint Committee for the European Union and a member of the Justice and Constitutional Committees in the Congress of Deputies. She was also responsible for the Analysis Department of the People's Party of the Community of Madrid.

As a result of her father's death in Paris in 2012, she inherited the title of Marchioness of Casa Fuerte a year later.[7] She is the 13th holder of the title.

In 2014 she wrote an article in the Financial Times against the separatist direction in which Catalan nationalism was perceived to be heading.[8] In 2014 she launched the constitutionalist manifesto Free and Equal as one of her first signature reforms. The manifesto rejected all concessions to the Catalan nationalists who desired independence.[9] She was the spokesperson of the homonymous organisation which seeks to involve the Spanish citizenry in the defense of the constitutional provisions of equality between all Spaniards against Catalan nationalism which is perceived as a threat to «the equality of all Spaniards», citing the attempt to establish the «Catalan people» as sovereign. Among the events organised by Free and Equal is the one which took place on 11 September 2014, the triennial of the defeat of the pro-Habsburg forces in Barcelona during the War of the Spanish Succession, in the Círculo de Bellas Artes of Madrid, where she also gave a speech.[10]

On 14 October 2015, she announced, through the newspaper El Mundo, that she would not stand for re-election as a candidate for the People's Party due to disagreements with the Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, regarding economic matters, Catalan separatism and the erosion of public institutions.

She gained particular popularity in 2016, after criticising the Cabalgata de Reyes organised by the City Council of Madrid, through a Tweet with the following text: '«My 6-year old daughter: 'Mom, this Gaspar's costume isn't real' I will never forgive you for this, Manuela Carmena. Never». The Tweet received more than six thousand replies and twelve thousand retweets, going viral.[11]

On 8 March 2018, she criticised the feminist strike taking place on that same day through a newspaper.[12] In June 2018 she published an opinion article after the dissolution of Mariano Rajoy government resulting from the no confidence motion sponsored by the PSOE. Álvarez de Toledo confirmed that she continue being a People's Party member, having however voted for the liberal centre-right party Ciudadanos, and she asked for the merging of the two parties.[13]

On 15 March 15, 2019 it was announced that she would run 1st in the PP list for the Congress of Deputies in the Barcelona constituency for the 28 April 2019 general election.[14] As result of the election she became a member of the lower house, effectively assuming office on 21 May 2019.[15] In July, the party's leader, Pablo Casado, announced that she would be the party's spokesperson for the 13th Congress of Deputies.

Committee assignments

9th Congress of Deputies
  • Constitutional Committee
  • Committee on Home Affairs
  • Joint Committee on Parliamentary Control of the RTVE Corporation and its companies

13th Congress of Deputies
  • Constitutional Committee
  • Committee on Justice

References
  1. "Directorio de la Fundación FAES". Fundación para el Análisis y los Estudios Sociales (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 26 June 2012. Retrieved 1 May 2019.
  2. "Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo, la confidente española de la Reina Máxima de Holanda". abc (in Spanish). 2013-09-20. Retrieved 2019-05-22.
  3. "'Me encantaría que Preysler se uniese a Libres e Iguales'". ELMUNDO (in Spanish). 2015-08-08. Retrieved 2019-05-22.
  4. "Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo, marquesa y ex diputada del PP, se divorcia de Joaquín Güell". El Confidencial (in Spanish). 2018-01-06. Retrieved 2019-05-22.
  5. "Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo, nueva jefa de gabinete de Acebes | elmundo.es". www.elmundo.es. Retrieved 2019-05-22.
  6. "BOE.es - Documento BOE-A-2008-2108". www.boe.es. Retrieved 2019-05-22.
  7. Boletín Oficial del Estado (BOE) - 12 October 2013
  8. "Subscribe to read". Financial Times. Retrieved 2019-05-22.
  9. Cué, Carlos E. (2014-07-15). "Un manifiesto con Vargas Llosa y Suárez Illana pide a Rajoy que actúe contra Mas". El País (in Spanish). ISSN 1134-6582. Retrieved 2019-05-22.
  10. "Vargas Llosa: 'La soberanía no es divisible'". ELMUNDO (in Spanish). 2014-09-11. Retrieved 2019-05-22.
  11. ""No te lo perdonaré jamás, Carmena": el tuit de Álvarez de Toledo que incendia las redes". El Confidencial (in Spanish). 2016-01-07. Retrieved 2019-05-22.
  12. "No a la guerra". ELMUNDO (in Spanish). 2018-03-08. Retrieved 2019-05-22.
  13. "Una papeleta". ELMUNDO (in Spanish). 2018-06-08. Retrieved 2019-05-22.
  14. "Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo será la número uno del PP por Barcelona". ELMUNDO (in Spanish). 2019-03-15. Retrieved 2019-05-22.
  15. Press, Europa (2019-04-29). "El PP se queda con un escaño en Catalunya, su peor resultado de la historia". www.europapress.es. Retrieved 2019-05-22.
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