María José Verdú

María José Verdú was born in Palma, Mallorca, in 1968. She graduated in public administration management (Gestión de las Administraciones Públicas), studied international relations and completed postgraduate training in the management and direction of teams and projects. Before devoting herself to politics she worked for companies in the events and event organisation sector.

Verdú was active in politics from the early days of Actua Baleares, where she worked alongside Jorge Campos, later Vox's leading figure in the islands. Within Vox she served as manager of the party's regional headquarters in the Balearic Islands and was elected a municipal councillor in Bunyola, a seat she kept until her death.

At the regional election of 28 May 2023 she stood fourth on the Vox list for Mallorca and was elected to the Parliament of the Balearic Islands. The result gave Vox a decisive role in the investiture of the Partido Popular's Marga Prohens as president of the government. In September 2023 Verdú was elected president of the Parliament's Health Committee, and within the group she was responsible for health and tourism, taking a close interest in hospital protocols and health resources across the islands. She became deputy spokesperson of the Vox parliamentary group.

In April 2024 she took the chair of the parliamentary commission of inquiry into contracts for face masks bought by the previous Balearic government during the pandemic from a company under investigation by Spain's National Court, part of what the Spanish press called the Koldo case. From 2025 she sat on the provincial executive committee of Vox in the Balearic Islands as head of management and treasury, and the party had placed her on its list for the Congress of Deputies at the coming general election.

Verdú lived in the Bunyola area of Mallorca and was a well known figure in Palmanyola, where she was president of the local Association against Cancer for two years. Colleagues described her as approachable and generous. She was married and had children; Jorge Campos sent his condolences to "her husband, her children, family and friends".

María José Verdú died in Palma on the afternoon of Friday 23 October 2026, aged 58, after a long illness. Sources in the Vox parliamentary group confirmed the death to Europa Press. The illness had prevented her from attending plenary sessions and committees for several weeks; its nature was not made public.

Vox said those who knew her highlighted "her capacity for work, her rigour and her dedication" and that she had firmly defended public health, health professionals and families in the Balearic Islands. The regional party president Gabriel Le Senne called her "an exceptional colleague and a friend" and asked supporters at a rally in Maó addressed by Santiago Abascal to pray for her family. The president of the Balearic government, Marga Prohens, described her as a friendly and approachable woman who was always looking out for others. Funeral arrangements had not been announced at the time of the first reports.

Verdú is remembered as one of the figures who built Vox's organisation in Mallorca and as the first chair of the Balearic Parliament's inquiry into the pandemic mask contracts. Her work on the Health Committee and with the Palmanyola cancer association were the causes most often mentioned in tributes.