An Argentine Marquesa, big star of the campaign in Spain

Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo, a candidate of the conservative Party Partido Popular (PP) in Barcelona, ​​became the media phenomenon of the Spanish electoral campaign by launching poisoned arrows – with a recognizable Argentine accent – at the heart of the Catalan independence movement.

It is noon and Álvarez de Toledo signs a copy of the Spanish Constitution that he hands over to his faithful on a stand in PP located on Rambla de Catalunya, in the city center, full of stands with books and roses, symbols of the Sant Jordi traditional book festival.

"For a Spain of free and equal citizens, Cayetana, affectionately", say the dedications of the first candidate for the national deputation of Catalonia, in which the highest leader of the conservatives, Pablo Casado, has given much of his hopes to recover the power for the PP after the elections next Sunday.

Of aristocratic origin, of Spanish and Argentine blood, she is the daughter of Juan Illán Álvarez of Toledo and Giraud, XII Marquess of Casa Fuente, title which she inherited, and Patricia Peralta Ramos, woman of the high society Argentine, Cayetana has a lot more than the PP candidate in Catalonia, it's his media bad, his weapon of polarization.

Graduate in History from the English University of Oxford, after pbading by the prestigious Northlands School of Buenos Aires, where he coincided and became friends with the current Queen of Holland, Máxima Zorroguieta, the PP policy uses little harsh words hurting its opponents and leaves no one indifferent.

From his "yes, yes, yes until the end" with which he made reference to the request of the socialists to amend the penal code in terms of badual consent so that the aggression is not a rape, even when describing the "xenophobic" or "golpista" separatists of TV3 – Catalan public television – in full interview, Álvarez de Toledo says nothing that he does not think.

Devoutly defends the liberal program in the economic and conservative field in the PP's morality, with an ironic and lively style, perceived by its rivals as a sign of arrogance, and responding calmly to criticism and reproach.

For this reason, the elegant 44-year-old blonde, dressed in a red shirt and a tight black pants, sketched a subtle smile when a lady – who was obviously not nice – reproached him for not speaking Catalan, which is true.

Nicknamed the "Messi del PP" by Casado, who placed it at the top of the list for Barcelona, ​​Cayetana is not intimidated by the difficulties, quite the contrary.

After leaving the Congress of Deputies in 2015 because of its differences with the moderate course followed by former President Mariano Rajoy, the former deputy from the liberal foundation FAES, created by the former president José María Aznar, chose the difficult challenge: to prevent the disappearance of the PP in Catalonia, where it is poorly represented.

In the latter part of the campaign, he found that he was on the right track after shaking hands with Alex, a middle-aged man who had approached signing the books to thank him. of "his wife with eggs".

"I voted for the PP all my life, but for corruption, I changed citizen and, until I heard Cayetana, I thought I'd vote for Vox ", explained this man tempted by the far right of Telam.

A little later, he directed his message, Álvarez de Toledo, to people like him, when he told the press that "nationalism is like a plague that contaminates everything".

The PP's policy criticized – and again exasperated – the Catalan President, Quim Torra, for having used his institutional message on the occasion of Sant Jordi to once again call for the mediation of Europe in the Catalan conflict and denounce the situation of secessionist leaders. prisoners.

"There are only two options: the continuity of constitutionalist Spain that represents Casado or the uncertainty and atomization that represents the socialist Pedro Sánchez and his separatist partners," Álvarez insists. of Toledo, the imam with whom the PP attracts fragmented voting. on the right, in Catalonia and in the rest of Spain.