Convergència per les Illes Balears
The Convergència per les Illes Balears (Convergence for the Balearic Islands) is a party that operates on the Balearic island of Mallorca . It was founded in October 1982 under the name Unió Mallorquina (UM) as a Balearic-nationalist development of the Unión de Centro Democrático (UCD), which was then in the process of dissolution. The driving force here was Jeroni Albertí Picornell . In 1993 it merged with Unió Independent de Mallorca and Convergència Balear. In 1999 she allied herself with the Independents of Menorca. In 2002 an agreement on political cooperation was made between it, the Unió Mallorquina and the Unió Centristes de Menorca. After several corruption scandals, which affected the long-time party leader Maria Antònia Munar and her successors Miquel Nadal and Miquel Àngel Flaquer , the party decided to dissolve in 2011 and re-establish it as Convergència per les Illes Balears .
The Unió Mallorquina was a member of the Liberal International and the ELDR . As a party of the center, it supported the government of the Partido Popular (1987-1991), but also the left, under the chairmanship of the socialist Francesc Antich , who took over the government from the Partido Popular in 1999. In changing coalitions, UM party chairwoman Maria Antònia Munar held the presidency of the island council (provincial parliament ) of Mallorca from 1995 to 2007.
In the local and state elections in 2007 UM received 31,689 votes (7.45% in the entire Balearic Islands), which earned her 88 city council seats. For the Parliament of the Balearic Islands she obtained 28,082 votes (6.75% in the Balearic Islands as a whole) and three seats. She was initially involved in the regional government under the leadership of Francesc Antich, but was excluded from the coalition in 2010 due to the corruption affairs. In the same year Josep Melià Qués was elected as the new party chairman, who in 2011 drove the dissolution and re-establishment of the party under a different name. This should improve the party's election prospects ahead of the regional elections in May 2011, as the old name was viewed as "stigmatized".
After a second judgment by the Higher Regional Court of the Balearic Islands, the former President of the Island Council Maria Antònia Munar and thus the most powerful woman from the tenure of Jaume Matas ( PP ) and Francesc Antich ( PSOE ) was sentenced to eleven years in prison on July 23, 2013. After a verdict for fraud was passed against her in July 2012, the second verdict has been proven that Ms. Munar has been convicted of abuse of office , fraud , bribery and other offenses in the corruption case of the luxury settlement Can Domenge . Since there is a risk of flight due to possible foreign assets of the accused , no bail, as is usual in other cases, may be made. Ms. Munar is in prison together with other former UM party members accused of corruption, such as Tomeu Vicens, former Secretary General of the UM, Francesc Buils, former Councilor for Tourism, and Miquel Nadal and Alaró Antoni David Rebassa. At the trial, another defendant testified that EUR 4 million had been paid in bribes, of which Ms. Munar received EUR 600,000.
Individual evidence
- ↑ El País , February 28, 2011: Unió Mallorquina se disuelve para escapar de la estigmatización de sus siglas por la corrupción .
- ↑ Los jueces encarcelan a Munar por riesgo de que se fugue al extranjero ; in: EL País (accessed July 24, 2013; in Spanish)
- ↑ La Justicia se impone a la incredulidad ; in: Diario de Mallorca (accessed July 25, 2013, in Spanish)
- ↑ From court to prison: Munar already behind bars ; in: Mallorca Zeitung (accessed July 25, 2013)
- ↑ Cinco figuras de Unió Mallorquina, en la cárcel de Palma por corrupción ; in: EL País (Spanish), accessed on August 2, 2013