Introduction
Antonio Cantó García del Moral, known as Toni Cantó (born Valencia, 14 January 1965) is a Spanish actor, Citizens party politician and former UPyD politician, who represented Valencia Province in the Congress of Deputies from 2011 to April 2015 and again from December 2015 to the present.
Career as actor
Prior to his involvement in politics, Cantó worked extensively in theatre, film and television, starring in Spanish series such as the sitcom 7 vidas.
As politician
In 2011, Cantó was selected to head the UPyD list in Valencia Province for the 2011 general election, where he gained a seat. In 2014, he was selected as UPyD candidate for President of the Generalitat Valenciana in the 2015 regional elections. He resigned his seat in Congress in April 2015 and announced that he would also not be standing for President in the Valencian regional elections. In his resignation announcement he stated that he would consider whether to remain in UPyD after the party's congress in June 2015.
Cantó had been one of the UPyD figures most critical of the leadership of Rosa Díez. Following poor local and regional election results, Díez resigned and Cantó supported Irene Lozano in the subsequent leadership election on 12 July 2015, in which Lozano lost to Andrés Herzog. 4 days later, Cantó announced that he would sit as an independent and would seek the number two position on the Citizens' list for the 2015 Spanish general election. He was chosen as the second candidate and was elected to Congress in the 2015 election.