Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo

Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo is one of the most controversial and brilliant Spanish politicians, journalists and intellectuals of her generation. Born in Madrid in 1974, she has stood out for her vibrant defense of liberal democracy in the face of her enemies: populism, nationalism, separatism, and identity politics.

Álvarez de Toledo was Member of Parliament for Madrid during two legislatures and from April 2019 for Barcelona. Until August 2020, she was the Speaker in Congress of Spain’s “Partido Popular”. Her vigorous leadership in the face of populism and nationalism, her audacious denunciation of the evils of contemporary politics, her brilliant defense of the modern values of Enlightenment, and her commitment to democratic regeneration have earned her a following beyond her party and her country. Álvarez de Toledo is now working for the construction of a “New Political Space of Reason” that overcomes expired ideological categories and brings together democrats from both hemispheres.

A firm defender of the need to fight the cultural battle, Álvarez de Toledo has proclaimed herself an “Amazon feminist” and has raised her voice against all forms of collectivisation and victimhood under the banner of identity, which has made her a benchmark for many other women. Álvarez de Toledo is also a fireproof democratic activist. In 2014, together with Mario Vargas Llosa and other intellectuals, she founded the civil association Libres e Iguales to defend the Spanish constitutional order. The platform contributed decisively to a massive social mobilisation against the Catalan separatist process and continues as an example of the power of intelligence at the service of democracy.

Álvarez de Toledo has received numerous recognitions, including the Gibbs Prize for History from the University of Oxford, proxime accesit, the Silver Microphone from the Spanish Association of Press, Radio and Television Journalists, and the Civil Society Prize for Civics. She has a BA and a PhD (D.Phil.) from the University of Oxford, which granted her multiple recognitions and where she published her thesis on Spain and America in the seventeenth century, later translated to Spanish.