Draft:Raquel García Hermida-van der Walle

Raquel García Hermida-van der Walle (born 28 May 1983) is a Dutch-Spanish politician for Democrats 66 (D66). She is currently listed second on the candidate list of D66 for the 2024 European Parliament election.

Biography
García Hermida-van der Walle grew up in Madrid and studied journalism at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. During her studies, she was active for a local political party in Spain, Juntos por Pinto. After her studies, she worked for various NGOs and civil society organizations, including the Earth Day Network, Survival International, and Stichting AAP in the United States, Spain, and the Netherlands. She has been politically active for D66 since 2018, for which she sits in various committees and departments. From 2019 to 2023 she was the chairwoman of D66 Fryslân. García Hermida-van der Walle won the Els Borst Inspiration Prize in 2019, and was also a candidate for the 2019 European Parliament elections. Aside from her political career, she has several other public roles. Her current and former roles include being a member of the representative body for the Pension Funds Public Libraries, the Supervisory Board of Stichting AAP, and the Board of Directors of the Stichting for Extraordinary Plants.

Private Life
García Hermida-van der Walle lives in Gorredijk (Fryslân), is married and has three daughters. In her daily life, she is also active as a volunteer for the local football club VV Gorredijk. She speaks Spanish, English, and Dutch, with a passive understanding of French, Italian, and West Frisian.