María Guardiola was born with the Constitution, just on the day of reflection of the referendum that approved the Magna Carta in 1978. At 44 years old, and barely one as leader of the PP of Extremadura, which made her a true unknown, she has become a benchmark from Alberto Núñez Feijóo’s party for his slamming of the Vox door, and his criticism of the extreme right for his denial of violence against women, his demonization of immigrants, and his contempt for the LGTBI collective.
In Extremadura they began to know her a few months ago, when she began to tour the region already as president of the Extremaduran PP, and especially in the electoral campaign of the elections on May 28, but outside this region few know who this woman from Cáceres is. the one whose pulse has not trembled to tell Vox no.
Graduated in business management and administration, she obtained one of the best records of her promotion, which served to obtain an internship contract at the Junta de Extremadura. With him, she abandoned the jobs with which she had made her studies compatible, whether it was in a department store, distributing telephone directories, or giving private classes in what was one of her passions, mathematics. She took advantage of her internship to prepare oppositions to the Junta de Extremadura, appeared in two, and won a place in both as an official of Group A.
Married with two children, a 15-year-old boy who likes politics and soccer, and a 12-year-old girl who is a piano virtuoso, María Guardiola is very jealous of her private life, which she shares with her friends from her whole life and especially with her family, her husband, her children and her mother, her vital reference and for whom she feels devotion. Her mother’s partner, who raised her, has always been with her and continues to be, although she now maintains a relationship with her real father, as well as with her mother’s and father’s siblings, with whom form a pineapple
Everyone who knows her agrees in highlighting the same qualities about María Guardiola: She is serious, an opponent, conscientious, exhausting, she never settles for work and asks for more, a hard worker, with very clear ideas “and very brave.”
She is a person of convictions, say those who work with her, and that is why what she defends she does with courage and passion, a passion that makes it impossible for her to defend anything she does not believe in, “before she leaves”, they say, and for this reason they underline that the words that could be heard recriminating Vox for its positions on gender violence, immigration or the LGTBI collective “reflect what he thinks”, and in fact it is not the first time he has said it, that and that with Vox he was not going to govern, that he could have a position on the Table (he came to offer Abascal’s party the presidency of the Assembly, a secretary, and a senator by autonomous designation), but he would not govern with them in coalition . She considers herself a feminist, but she also believes that Irene Montero’s thing is not feminism, it is something else, although she does not have any pain in her clothes and she has applauded some of her campaigns from the Ministry of Equality.
Surely it is feminism that led him to the fact that his relations with Guillermo Fernández Vara have not been the best. They say that in the first meeting they had, when he became president of the PP, in the office of the president of the Board, Vara told him “I don’t know how you get into this having two children”, and the president of Extremadura had to listen to him , Are you really telling me that?”, he began. Because María Guardiola almost never loses her smile, despite the fact that she has a lot of character, a lot of genius, but it is difficult for her to get angry, but when she gets angry “be careful”, they assure.
María Guardiola came to politics late and although for many it may be a handicap, many consider it an advantage, because she says what she thinks and having a personal and professional life abroad, it will cost her little to leave it. Her civil servant positions led her to be Secretary General first of the Economy and Finance and later of Science and Technology of the Junta, being President of Extremadura José Antonio Monago, her mentor. In 2015 she ran for the municipal elections for Cáceres, where she dealt with social issues. María Guardiola, a true stranger, was the person that Feijóo trusted to renew the PP of Extremadura. Some have compared her to Isabel Díaz Ayuso, but she rejects it, she is her.
