Macarena Olona Choclán (born 14 May 1979) is a Spanish politician and state attorney. Olona was member of the

Congress of Deputies The Congress of Deputies () is the lower house of the , Spain's legislative branch, the upper house being the Senate of Spain, Senate. The Congress meets in the Palacio de las Cortes, Madrid, Palace of the Parliament () in Madrid. Congress has ...

between 2019 and 2022 for Vox, before being allegedly involved in an internal feud that led to her expulsion from the party.

Early life and career

Born in

Alicante Alicante (, , ; ; ; officially: ''/'' ) is a city and municipalities of Spain, municipality in the Valencian Community, Spain. It is the capital of the province of Alicante and a historic Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean port. The population ...

, Olona graduated in Laws for the

University of Alicante The University of Alicante (, ; , ; also known by the acronym ''UA'') was established in 1979 on the basis of the Center for University Studies (CEU), which was founded in 1968. The university main campus is located in San Vicente del Raspeig/San ...

in 2003 with extraordinary prize and entered the

State Lawyers Corps The State Lawyers Corps (Spanish: ''Cuerpo de Abogados del Estado'') is a body of top civil servants in Spain, dependent on the Solicitor General of the State, itself organically integrated (currently) within the Ministry of Justice. It was crea ...

in 2009. Between 2013 and 2018, she was chief lawyer of the state of the Basque Country. Transferred to the

Sociedad Estatal de Participaciones Industriales The State Company for Industrial Investments (, SEPI) is a Spanish state-owned holding company that is characterized as a sovereign wealth fund. It is part of the Ministry of Finance. SEPI was preceded by the Instituto Nacional de Industria (IN ...

as general secretary in August 2017, the following year she collaborated in uncovering the ''Mercasa case'' that involved both the People's Party (PP) and the

Spanish Socialist Workers' Party The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party ( , PSOE ) is a Social democracy, social democratic Updated as required.The PSOE is described as a social-democratic party by numerous sources: * * * * List of political parties in Spain, political party ...

(PSOE) in the payment of millionaire bites and cost overruns of more than 300% in foreign contracts. In the

April 2019 Spanish general election A General elections in Spain, general election was held in Spain on Sunday, 28 April 2019, to elect the members of the 13th . All 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies were up for election, as well as 208 of 266 seats in the Senate of Spain, Sen ...

, Olona was elected deputy and then re-elected in the

November 2019 Spanish general election A general election was held in Spain on Sunday, 10 November 2019, to elect the members of the 14th . All 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies were up for election, as well as 208 of 265 seats in the Senate. The election was held as provided und ...

, representing in both cases the

province of Granada Granada is a province of southern Spain, in the eastern part of the autonomous community of Andalusia. It is bordered by the provinces of Albacete, Murcia, Almería, Jaén, Córdoba, Málaga, and the Mediterranean Sea (along the Costa Tropi ...

. She is known for her virulent criticism of the government of

Pedro Sánchez Pedro Sánchez Pérez-Castejón (; born 29 February 1972) is a Spanish politician who has served as Prime Minister of Spain since 2018. He has also been Secretary-General of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) since July 2017, having p ...

, accusing it of "genocide" for its management of the

COVID-19 pandemic in Spain The COVID-19 pandemic in Spain has resulted in confirmed cases of COVID-19 and deaths. The virus was first confirmed to have spread to Spain on 31 January 2020, when a German tourist tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 in La Gomera, Canary Island ...

or of wanting to impose the Venezuelan "Chavist model" in Spain. She favours establishing a government of "national salvation" involving the army. She is opposed to laws on

LGBT LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The gro ...

gender violence Gender-related violence or gender-based violence (GBV) refers to any kind of violence directed against people due to their gender or gender identification, culture may have a role to play, being lower in egalitarianism societies and higher, sexist ...

. In 2022, Olona was appointed by Vox as the presidential candidate for the

2022 Andalusian regional election The 2022 Andalusian regional election was held on Sunday, 19 June 2022, to elect the 12th Parliament of Andalusia, Parliament of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia. All 109 seats in the Parliament were up for el ...

. Even though the party won 2 seats and 100,000 votes, it lost 400,000 compared to the party's result in the November 2019 general election. Days after the constitution of the 12th Parliament of Andalusia on 14 July 2022, her retirement from politics "due to health issues" was announced. In 2023, she announced the founding of a new political party, Caminando Juntos (Walking Together), which she led in the

2023 Spanish general election A General elections in Spain, general election was held in Spain on Sunday, 23 July 2023, to elect the members of the 15th Cortes Generales. All 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies were up for election, as well as 208 of 266 seats in the Sen ...

scheduled for 23 July.

Personal life

Granddaughter of businessman Felipe Choclán, Olona was one of the richest members of Congress. On 12 March 2020, during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, it was confirmed she had tested positive for

SARS-CoV-2 Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2) is a strain of coronavirus that causes COVID-19, the respiratory illness responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. The virus previously had the Novel coronavirus, provisional nam ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Olona, Macarena 1979 births Living people Members of the State Lawyers Corps Members of the 13th Congress of Deputies (Spain) Members of the 14th Congress of Deputies (Spain) Vox (political party) politicians Spanish women in politics Politicians from Alicante 21st-century Spanish lawyers Members of the 12th Parliament of Andalusia University of Alicante alumni 21st-century Spanish women lawyers