Alicia Sánchez-Camacho Pérez (born 22 April 1967) is a Spanish lawyer and politician. She served as the President of the People's Party in

Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...

from 2008 to 2017. Sánchez-Camacho was born to

Manchego Manchego (, ) is a cheese made in the La Mancha region of Spain from the Sheep milk, milk of sheep of the Manchega breed. It is aged between 60 days and 2 years. Manchego has a firm and compact consistency and a buttery texture, often containin ...

and Extremaduran parents in

Blanes Blanes () is a town and Municipalities of Spain, municipality in the Comarques of Catalonia, comarca of Selva (comarca), Selva in Province of Girona, Girona, Catalonia, Spain. During Roman rule it was named Blanda or Blandae. It is known as the ...

. Her father was a

Guardia Civil The Civil Guard (; ) is one of the two national law enforcement agencies of Spain. As a national gendarmerie, it is military in nature and is responsible for civil policing under the authority of both the Ministry of the Interior and the Minis ...

officer. Sánchez-Camacho was elected as a

deputy Deputy or depute may refer to: * Steward (office) * Khalifa, an Arabic title that can signify "deputy" * Deputy (legislator), a legislator in many countries and regions, including: ** A member of a Chamber of Deputies, for example in Italy, Spain, ...

for the

Province of Girona The Province of Girona ( ; ) is a Provinces of Spain, province in the northeastern part of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Catalonia, Spain. It is bordered on the northwest by the province of Lleida, on the southwest ...

in the Catalan parliamentary elections of 1999 and

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

. She was also elected as the Deputy for Barcelona Province in the Spanish general election of 2004. On 16 April 2008, Sánchez-Camacho was appointed by the

Parliament of Catalonia The Parliament of Catalonia (, ; ; ) is the Unicameralism, unicameral legislature of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Catalonia. The Parliament is currently made up of 135 members, known as Deputy (legislator), deput ...

to replace Daniel Sirera as one of its eight representatives in the

Spanish Senate The Senate () is the upper house of the , which along with the Congress of Deputies – the Lower house, lower chamber – comprises the Parliament of the Kingdom of Spain. The Senate meets in the Palacio del Senado, Palace of the Senate in Madri ...

. Following the People's Party's poor performance in Catalonia at the

2008 Spanish general election A General elections in Spain, general election was held in Spain on Sunday, 9 March 2008, to elect the members of the 9th . All 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies were up for election, as well as 208 of 264 seats in the Senate of Spain, Senate ...

, Daniel Sirera reluctantly resigned as its regional chairman under pressure from the party's national leader,

Mariano Rajoy Mariano Rajoy Brey (, ; born 27 March 1955) is a Spanish politician who served as Prime Minister of Spain from 2011 to 2018, when a 2018 vote of no confidence in the government of Mariano Rajoy, vote of no confidence ousted his government. A m ...

. Sánchez-Camacho was Rajoy's chosen candidate for the regional chairmanship. She was challenged by Montserrat Nebrera, who ran on a more liberal-minded platform. Despite having the backing of the national leadership, Sánchez-Camacho polled a lower-than-expected 56% in winning the run-off election. Ahead of the 2010 Catalan parliamentary election, Sánchez-Camacho took the unusual step in Spanish politics of setting up the country's tolerance of high

immigration Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not usual residents or where they do not possess nationality in order to settle as Permanent residency, permanent residents. Commuting, Commuter ...

as a key campaign topic. Again, in 2013 and 2017, she was involved in the "Camargate" case, where she recorded a conversation with the objective of incriminating Catalan sovereignist parties and politicians in 2010.

Controversies

Xenophobic content

In April 2010, Alicia Sánchez-Camacho was forced to apologize publicly for a diptych with radical

xenophobic Xenophobia (from (), 'strange, foreign, or alien', and (), 'fear') is the fear or dislike of anything that is perceived as being foreign or strange. It is an expression that is based on the perception that a conflict exists between an in-gr ...

content with allusions to the

skinhead A skinhead or skin is a member of a subculture that originated among working-class youth in London, England, in the 1960s. It soon spread to other parts of the United Kingdom, with a second working-class skinhead movement emerging worldwide i ...

s of the city of

Badalona Badalona (, , , ) is a municipality in Barcelonès county, in Catalonia (Spain). It is located to the north east of Barcelona, on the left bank of the Besòs River and on the Mediterranean Sea, in the Barcelona metropolitan area. By population, ...

, edited by the PP of Badalona (

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

), which linked

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

n citizens settled in the municipality with

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definiti ...

and the need for radical population increase to eradicate this "plague". The national leadership of his party had rejected the message the previous day after his complaint by the media. Subsequently, he visited the municipality accompanied by the French MEP Marie Thérèse Sanchez-Schmid to check on the ground the situation of the Romanian

Gypsy {{Infobox ethnic group , group = Romani people , image = , image_caption = , flag = Roma flag.svg , flag_caption = Romani flag created in 1933 and accepted at the 1971 World Romani Congress , po ...

community in the neighborhoods of La Salut and Sant Roc and hear the testimonies of the neighbors about the alleged bad coexistence with the Romanian community. On that same visit, Sánchez-Camacho asked the government for more

border control Border control comprises measures taken by governments to monitor and regulate the movement of people, animals, and goods across land, air, and maritime borders. While border control is typically associated with international borders, it als ...

and defended a "legal and orderly" immigration.

Camargate

In June 2013, a four-minutes conversation, referred to by the media as ''Camargate'', was made public, held with María Victoria "Vicky" Álvarez (former sentimental partner of Jordi Pujol Ferrusola,

Jordi Pujol Jordi Pujol i Soley (, born 9 June 1930) is a retired Catalan politician who was the leader of the party Convergència Democràtica de Catalunya (CDC) from 1974 to 2003, and President of the Generalitat de Catalunya from 1980 to 2003. Early life ...

's son) in the restaurant La Camarga, in L'Eixample of

, carried out by the Detective Agency Método 3, whose total duration was later uncovered by the Diario Público. The objective of the recording, whose participation Sánchez-Camacho strongly denied at the time, was to launch the so-called "Operation Catalonia", a political plot led by the PP against Catalan sovereignist parties and politicians. Declaring that the Pujol family had a fortune in

Andorra Andorra, officially the Principality of Andorra, is a Sovereignty, sovereign landlocked country on the Iberian Peninsula, in the eastern Pyrenees in Southwestern Europe, Andorra–France border, bordered by France to the north and Spain to A ...

would, according to Sanchez-Camacho, later "start Jordi Pujol Ferrusola's imputation". Denying his relationship with the case implied that he loaned false testimony before a judicial declaration and the commission of investigation of the Parlament de Catalunya. The recording took place on July 7, 2010, and its duration was 2 hours and 22 minutes. First, the employee of Método 3 Alejandro Borreguero came to the restaurant with a vase of flowers that had a built-in microphone inside, and that would serve as a centerpiece. The recordings, which had already begun when the employee entered the restaurant shortly before 2:00 p.m., confirmed a conversation between the agent and a manager in which the assignment of Sánchez-Camacho was alluded to. In addition, he stated that Método 3 would take over the price of the meal. During the recording of the meal, which began after the technician left the restaurant, Sánchez-Camacho declared "Vicky, in the event that we could now do something with all of this, this meal has never happened.", " I have very good contacts inside the police ..and I knew who they were going to arrest " and, especially, "I have a

public prosecutor A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the adversarial system, which is adopted in common law, or inquisitorial system, which is adopted in civil law. The prosecution is the legal party responsible ...

of my trust". Later, Sánchez-Camacho delivered a report with the results of the recording to the

Ministry of the Interior An interior ministry or ministry of the interior (also called ministry of home affairs or ministry of internal affairs) is a government department that is responsible for domestic policy, public security and law enforcement. In some states, the ...

, whose president Jorge Fernández Díaz would later also be involved in the "Operation Catalonia ".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sanchez-Camacho, Alicia 1967 births Lawyers from Catalonia Women politicians from Catalonia Women lawyers from Catalonia Living people Members of the 8th Congress of Deputies (Spain) Members of the 12th Congress of Deputies (Spain) Members of the 13th Assembly of Madrid Members of the Parliament of Catalonia Members of the Senate of Spain People's Party (Spain) politicians Politicians from Barcelona Women members of the Congress of Deputies (Spain)