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Valeria Ripoll
Shirley Valeria Ripoll Fraga (born 13 October 1982) is a Uruguayan trade unionist, civil servant, television personality and politician of the National Party.[1] On June 30, 2024, she was announced as Álvaro Delgado Ceretta's running mate for the 2024 general election.[2] Early life and careerRipoll was born on 13 October 1982 in Montevideo, to Shirley Fraga, an ANCAP official, and Néstor Ripoll, a non-commissioned officer of the National Navy.[3] The eldest daughter in a Catholic family, she has a younger sister, Joana. Raised in the Brazo Oriental neighborhood of Montevideo, she attended the Colegio Sagrado Corazón of the Brothers of the Sacred Heart.[4] In her teens, to help with expenses at home, she studied piano and music theory, and worked as a music teacher in a kindergarten. She also served as a manager at a McDonald's restaurant and as a clerk at the National Navy headquarters, where she rose to the rank of seaman.[1] After graduating from high school she enrolled at the University of the Republic to study psychology, but she did not finish her degree.[3] She later studied to become an accounting administrative assistant.[2] In 2007 she signed up for a call for tenders from the Intendancy of Montevideo and got a position at the Municipal Planetarium.[4] During this time she joined the Asociación de Empleados y Obreros Municipales (ADEOM), the workers' union of the municipality of Montevideo.[5] Ripoll also worked as an official at the Botanical Garden and at the Montevideo Philharmonic Orchestra for a number of years.[6] While working as a civil servant, she held different union positions. From 2015 to 2017 she was a member of the union's culture secretariat and hosted its radio program. In September 2017 she took office as general secretary of ADEOM, which exponentially increased her public exposure.[7] In this position she was critical of the Broad Front administrations of Montevideo headed by Daniel Martínez and Carolina Cosse.[8] In the 2019 union elections, her group received the most votes, obtaining a majority in the union executive.[9] In the 2021 union elections, her group once again had the most votes.[10] In 2023 she announced her departure from union activity.[11] Until July 2024, when she had already entered party politics, she presided over the National Federation of Municipal Employees and was a member of the executive secretariat of the Plenario Intersindical de Trabajadores – Convención Nacional de Trabajadores trade union centre.[12] Political careerDespite coming from a right-wing family, in 2010 while beginning union activity, she joined the Communist Party of Uruguay at the invitation of one of her union colleagues.[13] However, in 2017 she disaffiliated and left the party due to disagreement with the party's lenient position regarding the administration of Daniel Martínez as Intendant of Montevideo, of which she was critical.[14] She has stated that she was asked to be less harsh in her criticism because Martínez was going to be the Broad Front presidential candidate in 2019.[5][15] In addition, she has reported that after refusing to do so and leaving the party, she suffered vandalism at her residence, until she needed police custody.[16] In mid-August 2023, she announced her departure from union activity and her entry into party politics, as a member of the centre-right National Party.[17] She endorsed Álvaro Delgado Ceretta for president and began working as an advisor under commission in Martín Lema's seat—occupied by his first substitute—in the Chamber of Representatives.[18] In February 2024 she announced that she was joining D Centro, a centrist sector of the National Party, along with leaders such as Vice President Beatriz Argimón and Vice Minister of the Interior Pablo Abdala.[19] In the 2024 presidential primaries she was a leader of the Lista 5 electoral list, which supported the candidacy of Delgado Ceretta.[20] Following Álvaro Delgado Ceretta's landslide victory in the National Party primary on June 30, Ripoll was announced as his running mate and vice presidential candidate for the general election.[21] The decision caused great surprise and made headlines in most newspapers the following day, due to her past as a member of the Communist Party and a trade unionist, and because she had only been in the National Party for almost a year.[22] Among the reasons given by Delgado's team for the selection of Ripoll is to attract more centrist or centre-left voters who do not intend to vote for a Broad Front "more shifted to the left".[23][24] Filmography
Personal lifeRipoll has three children, two girls and a boy.[7] As the latter was diagnosed with autism, she has become involved in activism, promoting the Fundación Abrazo Azul, a non-profit autism awareness organization.[9] References
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