“It never appears, but it is always there.” That was the unexpected declaration of love that Alberto Núñez Feijóo dedicated to his partner the last time he was re-elected president of the Xunta de Galicia in 2020. Few words that say a lot about the discreet character and secrecy that Eva Cárdenas has taken pains to maintain since his relationship with the Galician politician became known. Some say that they met at a dinner in Pontedeume, others that it was during a Madrid-Galicia flight. The glossy paper magazines photographed them together for the first time at Casa Marcelo, a Michelin-starred restaurant in Santiago de Compostela, although they had already been seen walking around Cedeira days before. It was the year 2013, almost a decade in which their work and personal lives have taken a radical turn. Now Núñez Feijóo is taking a step forward in national politics to lead the popular after Casado’s departure, while many look at Cárdenas as the Galician first lady who could come to the fore with him today.
EFE
Galician and Bilbao genes
Eva María Cárdenas Botas was born in 1965 into one of those families that forged the character of A Coruña. She is the daughter of Cristina Botas Prego and granddaughter of Santiago Botas, owner of a well-known pharmacy in the center of A Coruña. Like almost all the Botas, he is of Maragato origin – the “Botas Tribe” meets every five years in Castrillo de los Polvazares – and owns large tracts of land, from Miño beach to Fragas de Eume, according to ‘El Lighthouse of Vigo’. Through her paternal side, she is also closely linked to Euskadi. Her father, Antón Cárdenas, now deceased, was a native of Bilbao, and for years he was the personal director of Caixa Galicia. The banker José Luis Méndez signed him after having merged the savings banks of A Coruña, Ferrol and Lugo.
Eva Cárdenas and Alberto Núñez Feijóo at the Prince of Asturias Awards ceremony
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Intelligent, with innate class and good demeanor, those who know her say of Eva Cárdenas that “she is a shy, discreet and very Galician woman, who has always shunned the media, even before starting their relationship”, as they pointed out in the magazine ‘Vanity Fair’. A palpable reality: her image shines from her due to her absence in Núñez Feijóo’s Instagram profile and, in general, in his public life. Her social networks are also safe from prying eyes, hidden under the padlock of privacy. They have hardly made appearances together in the spotlight, except when she has had to act as an inexcusable companion in some other official act and in soirees that were magazine fodder such as the great Galician wedding of Marta Ortega and Carlos Torretta. With the Inditex heiress, by the way, she has shared experiences and a privileged place in the high spheres of Arteixo for 20 years.
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One of the top executives of our country
Eva Cárdenas graduated in Law and Industrial Design from the University of Santiago de Compostela. In addition, she completed a master’s degree in Business Administration and Management before starting a successful career in the business world. She went through the multinational perfumery and cosmetics L’Oreal and it was there that Amancio Ortega signed her for her perfume section. She fit perfectly with the philosophy of the Inditex group and soon rose to positions of responsibility, being one of the people closest to Pablo Isla and signing a brilliant career. At 38, she became president of Zara Home Spain. Under her mandate, the chain became a benchmark in this industry, becoming a sales leader and a pioneer in the online business. At the height of success, “the midas queens of the sector”, as the economic press dubbed her, she decided to abandon her professional career citing “personal reasons”. Some facts that were not publicly clarified, although many assured that she had the objective of focusing on her family. A family that grew, to the surprise of many, in 2017.
Eva Cárdenas and Sira Feijóo, partner and mother of Alberto Núñez Feijóo
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New personal and work direction
Sira, the mother of Núñez Feijóo, already regretted that her son had no other loves than the one from his land: “He married Galicia, but Galicia does not give me grandchildren,” he declared spontaneously in a party electoral video. A phrase that made her very popular among the Galicians and that she had to back down after the birth of little Alberto. And it is that the politician became a first-time father at age 55, while Eva gave birth to her second child at 51. She already had another adult daughter, Gabriela, the fruit of a previous marriage. With her he embarked on her new professional adventure in the real estate sector, after saying goodbye to her as a senior executive at Inditex. Together they founded the company Niebla Azul, on March 11, 2019, a limited company dedicated to the acquisition, promotion, rehabilitation, sale or non-financial lease of all kinds of real estate.
A new challenge would soon open up for her, this time as an external advisor at the Sargadelos Group, an iconic company that has been selling handmade porcelain in Galicia for two hundred years. She is behind its successful relaunch, with a new 200-square-meter store inaugurated in a beautiful 19th-century building on Calle Lagasca in Madrid. According to information from ‘El Confidencial’, “since she took over as the new head of International Projection, the brand has bet heavily on her return to the capital and is advancing in its expansion throughout Mexico. The Galician group has launched a new line of table linen, glassware, cutlery and candles, as well as a new line of recycled porcelain.
Galicia or Madrid?
Eva Cárdenas and Alberto Núñez Feijóo have always lived between the house that the businesswoman has in the luxury urbanization Icaria, in Oleiros, and the official residence of the Xunta de Galicia de Monte Pío, in Santiago de Compostela. In addition, they are in love with the Morrazo region, in Pontevedra, for which reason about three years ago they bought a beautiful stone house located literally on the sea, in the town of Moaña. A chalet from the 70s with its own garden and an area to store a pleasure boat that needed extensive reform. Only time will tell if they continue to enjoy their beloved Galicia or move their habitual residence to Madrid, a city where, by the way, the leader of the Xunta has a home, as noted in his real estate assets, which is public due to his position. .
