PP leader removes Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo from senior post in congress

MP topped party electoral roll in Catalonia in past two Spanish elections

PP candidate for Barcelona Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo (by Gerard Artigas)
PP candidate for Barcelona Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo (by Gerard Artigas) / ACN

ACN | Barcelona

August 17, 2020 06:26 PM

The leader of People's Party, Pablo Casado, has decided to remove Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo from his post as spokesperson of the conservatives' political group in Spain's congress.

The official from Logroño and also MP Cuca Gamarra is expected to replace her as his second-in-command in the chamber.

Álvarez de Toledo topped the People's Party electoral roll in the Barcelona constituency in the past two Spanish elections, held in April and November 2019.

The official removed was one of the voices more staunchly against dialogue between Spain and Catalonia over the independence issue.

In June, she accused the Socialists of having a "fanatic deal" with pro-independence Esquerra, and said Pedro Sánchez's party is in the midst of a "moral and ideological crisis."

Indeed, she was thought to support an alliance between the People's Party and Ciudadanos in the upcoming Catalan election to build a front against independence and left-wing parties.

Álvarez de Toledo also famously accused Spain's vice president Pablo Iglesias of being the "son of a terrorist."

In April 2019, she also questioned the policy stating that a sexual act will be a crime unless a woman does not give explicit consent.

"Will you really guarantee that? Is silence for you the same as 'no'? And one question: do you really say 'yes, yes, yes' until the end?" she asked her Socialist counterpart in an electoral debate