María Florencia López (born 26 February 1979) is an

Argentine Argentines, Argentinians or Argentineans are people from Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Argentines, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their ...

politician of the

Justicialist Party The Justicialist Party (, ; abbr. PJ) is a major political party in Argentina, and the largest branch within Peronism. Following the 2023 presidential election, it has been the largest party in the opposition against President Javier Milei. Fo ...

. She has been a National Senator for La Rioja Province since 2023. She previously served as Vice Governor of La Rioja from 2019 to 2023, under Governor

Ricardo Quintela Ricardo Clemente Quintela (born 16 March 1960) is an Argentine Justicialist Party politician who is currently Governor of La Rioja Province, since 11 December 2019. He was previously Mayor of the City of La Rioja from 2003 to 2015, as well as ...

, as '' intendenta'' (mayor) of Arauco from 2015 to 2019, and as a member of the provincial legislature for Arauco from 2011 to 2015.

Early life

López was born on 26 February 1980 in the city of

La Rioja La Rioja () is an autonomous communities in Spain, autonomous community and provinces of Spain, province in Spain, in the north of the Iberian Peninsula. Its capital is Logroño. Other List of municipalities in La Rioja, cities and towns in the ...

. Her family moved to Aimogasta when she was six years old, and she finished high school there. In 1997, she moved to

San Miguel de Tucumán San Miguel de Tucumán (), usually called simply Tucumán, is the capital and largest city of Tucumán Province, located in northern Argentina from Buenos Aires. It is the fifth-largest city of Argentina after Buenos Aires, Córdoba, Argentin ...

to study law at the

National University of Tucumán The National University of Tucumán (; UNT) is an Education in Argentina, Argentine national university located in Tucumán Province and the largest in Argentina's northwest region. Founded on 25 May 1914 in San Miguel de Tucumán, access to the ...

; she graduated at age 22 with the best average score among women in the year 2001. In 2003 she earned a notary's degree and began working in her own private practice. In 2005, she moved back to Aimogasta and began her political activism.

Political career

In 2007, López was elected to the deliberative council of

Arauco Department Arauco is a department of La Rioja Province, Argentina. Population It had 723 inhabitants at the 2001 census, an increase of 16% since the last census in 1991, when it had 623 inhabitants. Settlements * Aimogasta * Arauco * Bañado de los P ...

on the

list. Upon the end of her term in 2011, she was elected to the

Legislature of La Rioja The Legislature of La Rioja (), also sometimes referred to as the Legislative Function (''Función Legislativa''), is the unicameral legislative branch, legislative body of La Rioja Province, Argentina, La Rioja Province, in Argentina. It compris ...

as one of Arauco's three representatives. In 2012, she was elected vice president of the women's wing of the La Rioja Justicialist Party. In 2015, she was elected '' intendenta'' (mayor) of Arauco, becoming the first woman to ever hold the post. Two years later, she ran for one of La Rioja's three seats in the

National Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the eld ...

as the second candidate in the Frente Justicialista Riojano list, behind incumbent senator

Carlos Menem Carlos Saúl Menem (2 July 1930 – 14 February 2021) served as the 50th president of Argentina for ten years, from 1989 to 1999. He identified as Peronism, Peronist, serving as President of the Justicialist Party for 13 years (from 1990 to 200 ...

. The FJR list came second with 45.50%, and so only Menem was elected for the minority seat as per the Senate's

limited voting Limited voting (also known as partial block voting) is a voting system in which electors have fewer votes than there are positions available. The positions are awarded to the candidates who receive the most votes. In the special case in which th ...

system. Toward the end of her term as mayor, in

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

, López was selected to be the running mate of

in the

Frente de Todos The Frente de Todos (translated as "Everyone's Front") was a centre-left political coalition of political parties in Argentina formed to support President Alberto Fernández and Vice President Cristina Kirchner. Fernández won the 2019 gen ...

gubernatorial ticket. Quintela and López won with 44.89% of the vote, and, on 11 December 2019, she was sworn in as Vice Governor of La Rioja. López was succeeded in her post as mayor of Arauco by her sister, Virginia López. Carlos Menem died on 14 February 2021, two years before the end of his fourth term as senator. As the second candidate in the 2017 FJR list, López was next in line to fill in Menem's vacancy in the Senate, but she declined to assume the position as she wished to remain in office as vice governor of La Rioja. In November 2021, following the retirement of

Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

minister Elena Highton de Nolasco, a group of provincial parliamentarians from across the North-Western region of Argentina backed López to replace Highton's vacancy in the court.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lopez, Florencia 1980 births Living people 21st-century Argentine lawyers People from La Rioja Province, Argentina Justicialist Party politicians Mayors of places in Argentina Women mayors of places in Argentina Members of the Legislature of La Rioja Members of the Argentine Senate for La Rioja Vice governors of La Rioja Province National University of Tucumán alumni 21st-century Argentine politicians 21st-century Argentine women politicians