Maite Pagazaurtundúa is a Spanish politician, activist and writer. She is currently Member of the European Parliament, where she is spokesperson for UPyD (Union, Progress and Democracy) within the delegation of Ciudadanos and member of the Renew Europe Group. She has been President of the Victims of Terrorism Foundation in Spain. She has been defending freedom, justice and equality for decades.
She was born in Hernani (Basque Country) in 1965 into a working family. Her mother, Pilar Ruiz, was a war refugee and eventually also became a referent for the freedoms in the Basque Country. She is the youngest of three siblings. One of them, Joseba Pagazaurtundúa, was murdered by ETA in 2003 after years of threats, harassment and aggressions. She studied at an Ikastola and graduated in Hispanic Philology and Basque Philology in the University of Deusto.
She has participated in different social movements and initiatives for freedom in Spain as well as in other countries. She has dedicated dozens of years to combating terrorism, hate speech and mandatory nationalism. The cost of her public positioning in the front line against the terrorists meant a high degree of harassment, threats and aggressions of physical and symbolic violence, which forced her to live under police escort for 13 years and to leave her place of residence, to move with her family outside the Basque Country.
Her activity has been recognized with multiple awards such as the Sakharov Prize for Human Rights in 2000 – as a founding member of ¡Basta Ya!- or the Medal of the Order of Constitutional Merit in 2003. In 2005, she was part of a collective candidacy for the Nobel Peace Prize.
