Maite Pagazaurtundúa

María Teresa Pagazaurtundúa Ruiz (born in 1965 in Hernani, Guipuzcoa), better known as Maite Pagazaurtundúa or Maite Pagaza, is a Spanish politician, activist and writer. She is currently a Member of the European Parliament, vice-president of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Group - ALDE and Head of the Unión Progreso y Democracia Delegation in the European Parliament.

She was born and grew up in a small village in the Basque Country. She studied Basque and Spanish Philology at the University of Deusto.

Her mother was a war refugee who later became an activist for freedom in the Basque Country. One of her siblings, Joseba Pagazaurtundúa, was murdered by ETA in 2003 after suffering threats, harassment and aggressions for years.

She is married and has two daughters. She had to leave the Basque Country, encouraged by the police, after years of harassment, persecution and aggressions, and especially after her brother’s murder.

Maite Pagaza is a reference for freedom and Human Rights activism, as well as in the fight against terrorism and fanaticism. She took part in different social movements and initiatives in favour of freedom both in Spain and abroad. In 2005 she was part of a list of 1000 women nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

She is a prominent figure within civic movements supporting victims of terrorism in Spain. She was the President of the Foundation for Victims of Terrorism and of the victims of terrorism collective in the Basque Country COVITE.

Her achievements earned her several recognitions, such as the prestigious Sakharov Prize for Human Rights in the year 2000 -as member of ¡Basta Ya!- or the Medal of the Order of Constitutional Merit in 2003. Her public stance in the frontline of the fight against terrorism came with a price: she had to live for 13 years with police escort, suffer years of harassment, threats, aggressions and both physical and psychological violence, and leave her home and resettle with her family outside the Basque Country.

Maite Pagaza has kept her engagement with freedom in the Basque Country, justice for the victims of ETA and the regeneration of Basque society upon joining the European Parliament. Some of her works are reports such as “Democracy and freedom” and “Los profesores de la UPV-EHU contra ETA”.

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Wikipedia