María Teresa "Maite" Pagazaurtundúa Ruiz (; born 11 February 1965),Profile, votewatch.eu. Accessed 24 April 2022. also known as Maite Pagaza, is a Spanish politician, activist and writer. For ten years, she was an MEP in the European Parliament, where she was a member of the political groups Renew Europe (2019–2024, as an independent member of Citizens) and ALDE (2014–2019, as a member of UPyD).
Her work has been focused on the defense of the Rule of Law and fundamental rights, as well as the fight against terrorism, foreign interference and harmful disinformation aimed at overthrowing democratic systems.
Biography She was born in Hernani in 1965. Her mother, Pilar Ruiz, was a war refugee and, after the assassination of her son, became a reference for freedom in the Basque Country. She is the youngest of three siblings. One of them, Joseba Pagazaurtundúa, was murdered by ETA in 2003 after nine years of threats, harassment and aggressions.
She studied at the Urumea Ikastola in Hernani (1968-1979) and graduated in Hispanic Philology and Basque Philology from the University of Deusto. She also studied Law in Basque at the UPV. She suffered recurring harassment and threats for her political stance, and after aggression in the faculty she was forced to stop attending in-person classes.
In 1996 she established her residence in San Sebastián to avoid the extreme risks in her hometown. After years of harassment, persecution and aggressions and, especially after the murder of her brother Joseba, she moved with her family, on police recommendation, out of the Basque Country in 2007. She is married and has two daughters.
She has participated in different social movements and initiatives for civil liberties in Spain and other countries. Se has spent decades fighting terrorism, hate speech and compulsory nationalism. The cost of her public stance in the front line against terrorists meant a high degree of harassment, threats and aggressions of physical and symbolic violence, forcing her to live under police escort for 13 years.
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.
Political career Her political commitment began in the PSE-EE (PSOE), where she carried out various functions until she left the party due to deep disagreements with the leadership.
Between 1993 and 1998 she was a member of the Basque Parliament, where during the IV Legislature (1993 - 1994) she was a member of the Industry and Agriculture Commission, of the Education and Culture Commission and of the Human Rights Commission. In the V Legislature she was a member of the Education and Culture Committee, of the Incompatibilities Committee and vice-president of the Parliamentary Control Committee of EITB (the Basque Autonomous Community's public broadcast service). Likewise, she was president of the special commission against Drug Addictions. During her time in Basque politics she promoted that Basque hospitals apply protocols to promote breastfeeding.
She was also Secretary of Education and Culture of the PSE between 1993 and 1997, as well as advisor on Linguistic Policy to Fernando Buesa in the Department of Education of the Basque Government.
Between 1999 and 2007 she was a councilwoman and municipal spokesman for the PSE-EE in Urnieta, a town where she denounced several cases of corruption of the Basque Nationalist Party.
Her distancing from the PSOE occurred gradually when the PSOE embraced the theses of Jesús Eguiguren, who sought to bring the party closer to radical Basque nationalism. Subsequently this divide grew further, due to the anti-terrorist policy undertaken by the government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and the PSOE, as well as the relations of Patxi López and the PSE-EE with the Basque nationalist and abertzale environment, showing her reticence towards the contacts maintained with Batasuna and the political negotiations with ETA and its environment, after the "so-called" permanent ceasefire announced by ETA. In May 2005, together with the widow of her brother Joseba Pagazaurtundúa, Estíbaliz Garmendia, the also socialist councilman in Miravalles, Nicolás Gutiérrez, the then PSOE MEP Rosa Díez, the philosopher Fernando Savater and the professor Mikel Iriondo, she sent an open letter to Patxi López reproaching him for the treatment given to María San Gil, of the Popular Party, in front of the EHAK parliamentarians, in his round of parliamentary contacts.
In November 2013, she participated in the II Congress of Unión Progreso y Democracia (UpyD). On February 5, 2014, she announced together with Rosa Díez that she would run for the European elections in the number 2 position on the UPyD list as an independent, just after Francisco Sosa Wagner, to whom she later dedicated a fisking.
After obtaining the seat of MEP, she joined UPyD on September 3, 2014. In October 2014, she was appointed spokesperson of the Union for Progress and Democracy delegation to the European Parliament, replacing Francisco Sosa Wagner.
Through an electoral collaboration agreement between UPyD and Ciudadanos, Maite Pagazaurtundúa joined as an independent in the number 2 position on the Ciudadanos list for the 2019 European Parliament elections, obtaining the seat of MEP and, while maintaining her affiliation to UPyD, joining the European Ciudadanos delegation within the Renew Europe political group.
Activism Maite Pagaza has participated in different social movements and initiatives for freedom both in Spain and in other countries. She has specialized in public work for civil liberties and human rights, as well as against terrorism and fanaticism. She has been active in civic associations in support of victims of terrorism in Spain.
¡Basta Ya! In 1998, together with other Basque intellectuals, politicians and citizens of diverse ideologies and occupations, she was one of the founders of ¡Basta Ya! (English: Enough is enough!), a Spanish citizens' initiative born with the triple purpose of opposing terrorism in any of its forms, supporting its victims and defending the rule of law, the Spanish Constitution and the Statute of Autonomy of the Basque Country. Other prominent members of the initiative were Fernando Savater, Joseba Pagazaurtundúa (murdered by ETA in 2003), Consuelo Ordóñez, Arcadi Espada, Carmen Iglesias, Javier Urguizu, Mikel Azurmendi, Iñaki Ezkerra, Agustín Ibarrola, María San Gil and Rosa Díez.
This initiative was characterized by bringing to the field of the defense of liberties and fight against terrorism novel and dynamic forms of activism and vindication: demonstrations, caravans, poster sticking, publication of the online magazine "Hasta aquí" (Up to here)...
The work of this group of citizens was recognized in 2000 by the Sakharov Prize for the defense of Human Rights awarded by the European Parliament, with ¡Basta Ya! being the first european citizens' association to receive this award. On December 13, at a solemn session in Strasbourg, the prize was collected by the philosopher Fernando Savater, the natural leader of the group, who explained the reason for the initiative:¨We have taken to the streets and raised our voices because we are convinced that, when democracy is in danger, citizens cannot take refuge in their anonymity and meekly wait for everything to be resolved in the upper echelons of political power. "
President of the Fundación de Víctimas del Terrorismo (Foundation for Victims of Terrorism) She was the president of the Fundación de Víctimas del Terrorismo between 2005 and 2012, the year in which, after the change of government and the arrival of Mariano Rajoy (PP) to the Moncloa, she was replaced by María del Mar Blanco.
During her mandate she promoted the publication of the book ¨Vidas Rotas. Historia de los hombres, mujeres y niños víctimas de ETA¨, which chronicles all the murders committed by the terrorist group. The head of communications at the Foundation for Victims of Terrorism, Fernando Delgado, discovered that there were more than 300 unsolved cases of ETA murders. She hired a young lawyer to corroborate the data and led, with a group of victims, the constant work for more than two years to make the Audiencia Nacional (National Court) aware of the situation. Finally, the Prosecutor's Office of the Audiencia Nacional, with Javier Zaragoza at the head, produced the first official table of cases whose material authorship of murder was not resolved. Victims' associations, mainly COVITE and Dignidad y Justicia, have not stopped working since then on this pending matter.
Joseba's mailbox In February 2015, during the tribute to Joseba Pagazaurtundúa in Andoain on the twelfth anniversary of his assassination by ETA, his family installed a small white mailbox next to the sculpture by Agustín Ibarrola in memory of Joseba. The mailbox, known as Joseba's Mailbox, wants to give the inhabitants of Andoáin who cried out for ETA to kill the neighbors of the town who did not think like them, the opportunity to assume their responsibility. Pagazaurtundúa herself appealed to all those who felt challenged by the mailbox to deposit their letters -anonymous if they preferred- acknowledging their share of responsibility for the harassment and persecution of so many people.
The City Council wanted to remove the mailbox, but, faced with the arguments put forward by the family, did not dare to do so. Many people supported the continuity of the mailbox, among them the Ombudsman, Soledad Becerril. Finally, the opposition groups in the Andoain City Council supported the non-removal of the mailbox. In addition, the physical mailbox has subsequently been completed with a virtual one (http://www.elbuzondejoseba.org/) that has allowed the message for collective memory and against impunity to reach all corners of Spain.
The initiative was launched with letters from intellectuals such as Fernando Aramburu, Mario Vargas Llosa, Fernando Savater, Félix de Azúa or Arcadi Espada, as well as other figures such as Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo, Consuelo Ordóñez, Iñaki Arteta or Rosa Díez. Most of the letters were from citizens who wanted to show their support for the Pagazaurtundúa family and all the victims of terrorism. Some anonymous letters also arrived from repentant citizens, recognizing their part of responsibility for the persecution suffered by non-nationalists in the Basque Country.
Member of European Parliament Pagazaurtundúa was an active MEP in Brussels from 2014 to 2024, during two legislatures, the first for UPyD and the second for Ciudadanos. Her work continued to be committed to the defense of freedom, the fight against terrorism and radicalization or the promotion of human rights and justice, as well as the quality of the rule of law against the risks of illiberal populisms of all types.
Pagazaurtundúa has advocated building bridges between different political groups and finding pragmatic solutions to the challenges facing the European Union to advance the human rights, security and justice agenda in Europe. In addition, she has been an advocate for international cooperation and solidarity among EU member states.