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

Congress of Deputies The Congress of Deputies ( es, link=no, Congreso de los Diputados, italic=unset) is the lower house of the Cortes Generales, Spain's legislative branch. The Congress meets in the Palace of the Parliament () in Madrid. It has 350 members elect ...

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

Alicante Alicante ( ca-valencia, Alacant) is a city and municipality in the Valencian Community, Spain. It is the capital of the province of Alicante and a historic Mediterranean port. The population of the city was 337,482 , the second-largest in t ...

, Olona graduated in Laws for the

University of Alicante The University of Alicante ( ca-valencia, Universitat d'Alacant, italic=no, ; es, Universidad de Alicante, italic=no, ; also known by the acronym ''UA'') was established in 1979 on the basis of the Center for University Studies (CEU), which was fo ...

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 ''Sociedad Estatal de Participaciones Industriales'' (SEPI) is a Spanish state holding company that is characterized as a Sovereign wealth fund. It is controlled by the Ministry of the Treasury. SEPI was preceded by the Instituto Nacional de In ...

as general secretary in August 2017, the following year she collaborated in uncovering the ''Mercasa case'' that involved PP and

PSOE The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party ( es, Partido Socialista Obrero Español ; PSOE ) is a social-democraticThe PSOE is described as a social-democratic party by numerous sources: * * * * political party in Spain. The PSOE has been in gov ...

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

April 2019 Spanish general election The April 2019 Spanish general election was held on Sunday, 28 April 2019, to elect the 13th Cortes Generales of the Kingdom of Spain. All 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies were up for election, as well as 208 of 266 seats in the Senate. Fol ...

, she was elected Deputy and then re-elected in the

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

, representing in both cases the Province of Granada. 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 been Prime Minister of Spain since June 2018. He has also been Secretary-General of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) since June 2017, having pr ...

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

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

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

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term ...

or gender violence. On 12 March 2020, during 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 ...

, 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 (coronavirus disease 2019), the respiratory illness responsible for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The virus previously had a ...

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

2022 Andalusian regional election The 2022 Andalusian regional election will be held during the year 2022, to elect the 12th Parliament of the autonomous community of Andalusia. All 109 seats in the Parliament will be up for election. The 2018 election resulted in the first maj ...

. Even though the party won 2 seats and 100,000 votes, it lost 400,000 compared to the party's result in the

. Days after the constitution of the 12th Parliament of Andalusia on 14 July 2022, her retirement from politics "due to health issues" was announced. Granddaughter of businessman Felipe Choclán, she was one of the richest members of Congress.

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 lawyers Spanish women in politics People from Alicante 21st-century Spanish lawyers Members of the 12th Parliament of Andalusia