María del Mar Blanco Garrido (born 29 March 1974) is a Spanish People's Party (PP) politician. She has served as a member of the

Basque Parliament The Basque Parliament (Basque language, Basque: ''Eusko Legebiltzarra'', Spanish language, Spanish: ''Parlamento Vasco'') is the legislative body of the Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Autonomous Community of Spain and the elected ...

(2009–2012),

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 ...

(2016–2019) and

Assembly of Madrid The Assembly of Madrid or Madrid Assembly () is the Unicameralism, unicameral autonomous legislature of the Autonomous Community of Madrid since the approval of the Madrid Charter of Autonomy in 1983. It is elected every four years during the S ...

(since 2021).

Biography

Born in

Ermua Ermua is a town and municipality located in the province of Biscay, in the autonomous community of Basque Country, northern Spain. In 2019, Ermua had 15,880 inhabitants. Ermua is a town in the Durangaldea comarca of the province of Biscay in nor ...

Biscay Biscay ( ; ; ), is a province of the Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Autonomous Community, heir of the ancient Lordship of Biscay, lying on the south shore of the Bay of Biscay, eponymous bay. The capital and largest city is Bilb ...

, Blanco was the younger sister of People's Party councillor Miguel Ángel Blanco, who was kidnapped and murdered by

ETA Eta ( ; uppercase , lowercase ; ''ē̂ta'' or ''ita'' ) is the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the close front unrounded vowel, . Originally denoting the voiceless glottal fricative, , in most dialects of Ancient Greek, it ...

at the age of 29 in 1997. Their parents Consuelo and Miguel, who migrated from the

Province of Ourense Ourense (; ) is a province of Spain, in the southeastern part of the autonomous community of Galicia. It is bordered by the provinces of Pontevedra to the west, Lugo to the north, León and Zamora, (which both belong to Castile and León) to ...

in Galicia, both died in March 2020; their former died of

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

. Blanco had finished studying tourism shortly before the assassination of her brother. She was elected to the

in the

2009 Basque regional election The 2009 Basque regional election was held on Sunday, 1 March 2009, to elect the 9th Basque Parliament, Parliament of the Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Autonomous Community. All 75 seats in the Parliament were up for election. The ...

, 6th in the PP's list in

Álava Álava () or Araba (), officially Araba/Álava, is a Provinces of Spain, province of Spain and a historical territory of the Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Country, heir of the ancient Basque señoríos#Lords of Álava, Lordship ...

. In the 2012 election, the party fell to five seats in that constituency but still wanted her presence in parliament at the expense of someone further up the list; she relinquished any claim of a seat. In October 2012, Blanco became president of the Victims of Terrorism Foundation (FVT). She was the 14th of 15 PP members elected by

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

to the

in the

2016 Spanish general election A general election was held in Spain on Sunday, 26 June 2016, to elect the members of the 12th . All 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies were up for election, as well as 208 of 266 seats in the Senate. No party had secured a majority in the ...

. In the April 2019 election, the party fell to seven seats in the capital constituency, but Daniel Lacalle and Andrea Levy renounced their seats to let Blanco and Juan Ignacio Echániz take office. 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 ...

, Blanco led the PP in the Álava constituency. With just under 15%, the party elected no members in the constituency for the second consecutive time. She worked as a consultant on housing for the

City Council of Madrid The City Council of Madrid () is the top-tier administrative and governing body of Madrid, the capital and biggest city of Spain. The city council is composed by three bodies: the mayor, who leads the city council and the executive branch of it; ...

until being elected to the

in the 2021 regional election. Around 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 ...

, Blanco endorsed the slogan " Let Txapote vote for you" against the

prime minister of Spain The prime minister of Spain, officially president of the Government (), is the head of government of Spain. The prime minister nominates the Spanish government departments, ministers and chairs the Council of Ministers (Spain), Council of Mini ...

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 ...

. "Txapote" was the nickname of Francisco Javier García Gaztelu, one of the murderers of her brother.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blanco, Maria Del Mar 1974 births Living people People from Ermua People's Party (Spain) politicians Members of the 9th Basque Parliament Members of the 12th Congress of Deputies (Spain) Members of the 13th Congress of Deputies (Spain) Members of the 12th Assembly of Madrid Members of the 13th Assembly of Madrid Members of the People's Parliamentary Group (Assembly of Madrid)