María Teresa Mallada de Castro (born 14 January 1973) is a Spanish People's Party (PP) politician. A

mining engineer Mining engineering is the extraction of minerals from the ground. It is associated with many other disciplines, such as mineral processing, exploration, excavation, geology, metallurgy, geotechnical engineering and surveying. A mining engineer m ...

, she was the first woman and youngest person to be president of the public mining corporation (2012–2018). She led her party in the

General Junta of the Principality of Asturias The General Junta of the Principality of Asturias (in Spanish language, Spanish: ''Junta General del Principado de Asturias'', in Asturian Language, Asturian: ''Xunta Xeneral del Principáu d'Asturies'') is the parliament of Asturias, an autonomou ...

from 2019 to 2022, and the following year was elected to the

Senate of Spain The Senate () is the upper house of the , which along with the Congress of Deputies – the lower chamber – comprises the Parliament of the Kingdom of Spain. The Senate meets in the Palace of the Senate in Madrid. The presiding officer of the ...

Biography

Early life and mining engineering

Mallada was born in

Cabañaquinta Cabanaquinta (Spanish name: Cabañaquinta, and officially Cabanaquinta / Cabañaquinta) is one of 18 parish (administrative division) in Aller, a municipality within the province and autonomous community of Asturias, in northern Spain.< ...

Asturias Asturias (; ; ) officially the Principality of Asturias, is an autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in northwest Spain. It is coextensive with the provinces of Spain, province of Asturias and contains some of the territory t ...

to a local father and a mother from the Province of Jaén in

Andalusia Andalusia ( , ; , ) is the southernmost autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain, located in the south of the Iberian Peninsula, in southwestern Europe. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomou ...

. She studied Advanced Mining Engineering at the

University of Oviedo The University of Oviedo (, Asturian: ''Universidá d'Uviéu'') is a public university in Asturias (Spain). It is the only university in the region. It has three campus and research centres, located in Oviedo, Gijón and Mieres. History Th ...

and began working at a gold mine, before joining the public mining corporation initially on an internship in 1999. At the age of 20, Mallada joined the People's Party (PP), becoming the leader of the New Generations and the party proper in the municipality of Aller. In 2010, she became Vice Secretary of the People's Party of Asturias and was on the list for the

2011 Asturian regional election Eleven or 11 may refer to: *11 (number) * One of the years 11 BC, AD 11, 1911, 2011 Literature * ''Eleven'' (novel), a 2006 novel by British author David Llewellyn *''Eleven'', a 1970 collection of short stories by Patricia Highsmith *''Eleven'' ...

, without being elected. In February 2012, Mallada became president of Hunosa. She was the youngest person and first woman to hold the position. She left the corporation's presidency in July 2018 and was one of 164 employees who went into early retirement a year later when she was 46; unions and the state had agreed that those soon to be aged 51 could have early retirement due to the danger of the job.

Political career

Mallada was personally chosen by PP president

Pablo Casado Pablo Casado Blanco (; born 1 February 1981) is a Spanish former politician. He was a member of the Congress of Deputies representing Madrid until 4 April 2022, having previously represented Ávila between 2011 and 2019. From 2015 to 2018, he al ...

to lead the party in the

2019 Asturian regional election The 2019 Asturian regional election was held on Sunday, 26 May 2019, to elect the 11th General Junta of the Principality of Asturias, 11th General Junta of the Principality of Asturias, General Junta of the Principality of Asturias. All 45 seats i ...

, having polled better than the previous lead candidate

Mercedes Fernández Lola Montes (September 24, 1898 – January 18, 1983) was a Spanish singer whose real name was Mercedes Fernández. She began in the artistic world as a dancer at the Teatro Real in Madrid. Later, she performed as a singer in different Zarzuela per ...

. The party came second, dropping one seat to ten. Mallada's selection ahead of Fernández led to a leadership crisis in the Asturian PP, ending when the latter accepted a place in the

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 el ...

; the party' regional presidency remained vacant until Mallada assumed it in October 2020. In September 2022, national PP leader

Alberto Núñez Feijóo Alberto Núñez Feijóo (, ; born 10 September 1961) is a Spanish politician who serves as Member of the Congress of Deputies and as president of the People's Party (Spain), People's Party. He served as the president of the Regional Government o ...

announced that Mallada would not be the lead candidate for the

2023 Asturian regional election The 2023 Asturian regional election was held on Sunday, 28 May 2023, to elect the 12th General Junta of the Principality of Asturias, General Junta of the Principality of Asturias. All 45 seats in the General Junta were up for election. The electi ...

; in November, she resigned her presidency of the party in Asturias.

Álvaro Queipo Álvaro Queipo Somoano (born 9 May 1988) is a Spanish politician of the People's Party (Spain), People's Party (PP). He was a town councillor in Castropol from 2011 to 2020, and was elected to the General Junta of the Principality of Asturias in 2 ...

succeeded her as party president and Diego Canga as lead candidate; she remained as the party's spokesperson in the General Junta until the end of the calendar year, when the other deputies signed a document to hand that responsibility to . Mallada was second on the PP list for the

in the Asturias constituency 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 ...

. She was elected as her party took three of the four seats.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mallada, Teresa 1973 births Living people People from Aller, Asturias University of Oviedo alumni Mining engineers Spanish women engineers People's Party (Spain) politicians Members of the General Junta of the Principality of Asturias Members of the 15th Senate of Spain Women members of the Senate of Spain