Cristina of Spain

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Infanta Cristina

Cristina Federica Victoria Antonia de Borbón y Grecia (called Christina of Spain ), Infanta of Spain (born June 13, 1965 in Madrid ), is a daughter of the former king Juan Carlos I of Spain and Sophia of Greece .

Life

childhood and education

Cristina has two siblings, Infanta Elena of Spain and King Felipe VI. She was baptized in the Palacio de la Zarzuela by the Archbishop of Madrid. Her godparents were Alfons Jaime de Borbón and Infanta María Cristina of Spain. Cristina received her secondary education at the Santa María del Camino School . In 1984 she began studying political science at Complutense University in Madrid , which she successfully completed in 1989. This made her the first woman in the Spanish royal family to graduate from university.

In 1990, she completed a Master's program in International Relations at New York University . She then did an internship at UNESCO in Paris . She speaks Catalan , English, French, Greek and Spanish.

marriage and family

On October 4, 1997 Cristina married in Barcelona the Spaniard Iñaki Urdangarin , a former handball player of FC Barcelona . The couple have four children, all of whom were born in Barcelona:

  • Juan Valentín de Todos los Santos Urdangarin y de Borbón (born September 29, 1999)
  • Pablo Nicolás Sebastian Urdangarin y de Borbón (born December 6, 2000)
  • Miguel de Todos los Santos Urdangarin y de Borbón (born April 30, 2002)
  • Irene Urdangarin y de Borbón (born June 5, 2005).

Cristina ranks sixth in the line of succession to the Spanish throne . Her children follow in places seven to ten. She is excluded from the British succession , like the entire Spanish royal family, because she is Catholic.

She lived with her family in Barcelona until 2013. To escape, and their children from hostility by the Spanish public in connection with the corruption scandal, they moved with their four children in 2013 to Geneva in Switzerland to. Her husband remained in Spain due to the authorities' investigation against him.

Corruption affair

In the course of investigations into her husband Iñaki Urdangarin on suspicion of embezzlement, corruption, money laundering, forgery, tax fraud and social security fraud since 2006, Cristina received a summons for April 27, 2013, which was initially suspended. Urdangarin was accused of misappropriating millions of euros in public money through the allegedly non-profit foundation Nóos . As a member of the board of Nóos, Cristina had signed many documents. There was evidence that Cristina knew her husband was using her name and status for business. A notary explained her function on the board of Nóos : she was "a protective shield against the tax office ". Via a network of accounts in Switzerland and bogus companies that Urdangarin set up to disguise the outflow of funds, he channeled the funds in order to then use them for private expenses. Cristina traded as a partner in some of the bogus companies set up by Urdangarin and his business partner Diego Torres and was a member of the supervisory board. This also included the front company Aizoon , which they founded together and each owned 50 percent. Cristina used this to pay for luxury parties, safaris in South Africa and for the renovation of the family's luxury villa in Barcelona.

Only in a second attempt did the investigating judge José Castro from Palma indict Cristina. On February 8, 2014, she finally had to face the questions in court. For the first time in the history of the monarchy a member of the royal family had been summoned to testify in court. In doing so, Cristina could not hope to receive immunity, since according to the Spanish constitution, the descendants of the monarch are on an equal footing with ordinary citizens. To do this, she practiced cross-examination with her lawyers for several days . Less than two weeks later the transcript was made public, and the investigating judge received "95 percent excuses" for the 400 questions.

The scandal surrounding Cristina's husband Urdangarín and the trial against her, as well as the elephant hunting affair in the midst of the financial crisis in 2012, severely damaged the monarchy's reputation. The censorship scandal in the university town of Salamanca in Castile-León proved how considerable . Works that denounce corruption should be shown there . Two of them were oil paintings by Ausín Sáinz in the style of old rulers' portraits: one was dedicated to Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy , who was involved in a black money affair, and a portrait to Infanta Cristina - instead of a crown, the artist painted a pile of excrement on their heads . In June 2014, Casa Real deleted Cristina de Borbón's profile from its website, as it is no longer recognized as an official member of the Spanish royal family.

In addition, the title Duchess of Palma de Mallorca, bestowed by her father in 1997, was revoked on June 12, 2015 by her brother King Felipe VI.

The corruption affair surrounding the royal family and in the ruling people's party Partido Popular contributed to the fact that the country of Spain slipped ten places on the global corruption index of Transparency International to 40th place.

The corruption proceedings began on January 11, 2016 in Palma , Christina of Spain was one of the eighteen defendants in the criminal trial. At the start of the trial, the public prosecutor pleaded for the proceedings against the Infanta to be discontinued because he saw no evidence of the tax evasion of which she was charged. She was acquitted in mid-February 2017, while Urdangarín was sentenced to six years and three months' imprisonment and a fine.

Tasks and interests

Duties and offices

The Infanta supports a number of charitable organizations in Spain, Europe and Latin America . She is President of the International Foundation for Disabled Sailors . Like her parents, she has been a member of the Bilderberg Conference since 2001 . She is a member of the Board of Directors of the Dalí Foundation .

Cristina is also Honorary President of the Spanish Commission of UNESCO. Here she is primarily responsible for educational projects that aim to protect nature and culture. In October 2001, she was appointed the UN Goodwill Ambassador to the United Nations .

She has been working for the non-profit Spanish foundation Fundación Bancaria “la Caixa” since 1993 and has been responsible for coordinating the programs that the foundation implements in cooperation with various UN organizations based in Geneva since 2013. Since 2013 she has also worked for the Aga Khan Foundation based in Geneva.

Interests

The Infanta is considered to be very sporty, she loves sailing and also skiing. She took part in several competitions in sailing . In 1988 she was a member of the Spanish Olympic sailing team at the Olympic Games in Seoul . At the opening ceremony she carried the flag of the Spanish team, four years later in 1992 in Barcelona, ​​her brother Felipe was given this honor.

Honors

Web links

Commons : Cristina of Spain  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Spain's princess Cristina moves to Geneva. Tages-Anzeiger , July 31, 2013, accessed on July 23, 2019.
  2. ↑ Infanta Cristina gets a respite. Hessische / Niedersächsische Allgemeine , April 5, 2013, accessed on April 6, 2013.
  3. ↑ Martin Dahms: Infanta Cristina in court. Frankfurter Rundschau , February 10, 2014.
  4. ↑ Ute Müller: Infanta in court makes König stutter ( memento from April 3, 2015 in the Internet Archive ), Berliner Morgenpost, January 7, 2014.
  5. ↑ Court postpones summons in corruption scandal. n-tv , April 5, 2013.
  6. ↑ Infanta Cristina 95 percent excuses ( Memento of the original from February 27, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Tageblatt , February 8, 2014.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.tageblatt.lu
  7. ↑ Retirada una muestra con cuadros de Rajoy, Bárcenas y la infanta Cristina con excrementos en la cabeza. , El Periódico de Catalunya , February 8, 2014.
  8. ↑ Thomas Urban : Spanish Infanta Cristina in court: I fully trusted my husband. , Süddeutsche Zeitung , February 8, 2014.
  9. ↑ Cancelan en Salamanca una muestra por incluir "imágenes inadecuadas" sobre Rajoy y Doña Cristina. abc.es February 5, 2014.
  10. ^ Centro Municipal Integrado Julián Sánchez “el Charro” y Ausín Sáinz.
  11. ↑ El PP cancela una exposición con un cuadro de Rajoy con heces en la cabeza. El País , February 5, 2014.
  12. ^ Anne Grüttner: Cristina de Borbón. Shock to Spain's monarchy. Handelsblatt No. 120 of June 26, 2014, p. 46.
  13. ↑ King Felipe takes away the title of prince from sister Cristina. Spiegel Online, June 12, 2015.
  14. ↑ Infanta Cristina charged with tax fraud. Der Tagesspiegel , January 7, 2014.
  15. ↑ The monarchy in court, suspected tax evasion: trial begins in Palma de Mallorca. Luxemburger Wort Online, January 11, 2016.
  16. ↑ Six years imprisonment for Infanta Cristina's husband. FAZ, February 17, 2017.
  17. ^ El Aga Khan, el príncipe 'guardián' de doña Cristina en Ginebra. ¡Hola! , June 22, 2018, accessed on July 23, 2019.
  18. ↑ List of all decorations awarded by the Federal President for services to the Republic of Austria from 1952 (PDF; 6.9 MB)
personal data
SURNAME Cristina of Spain
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Borbón y Grecia, Cristina Federica Victoria Antonia de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Spanish Infanta
DATE OF BIRTH June 13, 1965
PLACE OF BIRTH Madrid