Jaume Matas

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Jaume Matas

Jaume Matas i Palou (born October 5, 1954 in Palma ) is a former Spanish politician . The graduate economist was President of the Autonomous Community of the Balearic Islands from 1996 to 1999 and from 2003 to 2007 . In March 2012, he was sentenced to six years in prison for abuse of office and corruption.

Life

Political career

Jaume Matas studied economics and business administration at the University of Valencia until 1978 . He began his political career in 1989 as Director General of the Budget in the Ministry of Economy and Finance of the Balearic Islands. In 1993 he became Minister of Economics and Finance of the Autonomous Community before taking over the office of President of the Balearic Government from Cristòfol Soler i Cladera , like Matas a member of the Partido Popular (PP), in June 1996 . Although with 43 percent the strongest party in the elections to the regional parliament of the Balearic Islands in 1999, the PP had to leave the business of government to a coalition of parties led by Francesc Antich i Oliver from the PSIB-PSOE . From July 1999 opposition leader, Matas was elected President of the Partido Popular in the Balearic Islands in October 1999 .

In April 2000, the Spanish Prime Minister José María Aznar appointed Jaume Matas as Environment Minister in the central government in Madrid , where he succeeded Isabel Tocino Biscarolasaga . When the oil tanker Prestige sank off the coast of Galicia in November 2002 and caused an environmental disaster on the north-west coast of Spain, the Ministry of the Environment was accused of being too late to react. In March 2003, Matas gave up his ministerial office in the Spanish government. From June 2003 Jaume Matas was again President of the Autonomous Community of the Balearic Islands, but had to hand over the presidency to Francesc Antich again after the elections of May 27, 2007, which were lost for the PP, who succeeded in forming a coalition government of several parties. In September 2007 Matas took a position in the Barceló Group (Grupo Barceló) , which he left in January 2009.

During his tenure as President of the Balearic Islands, Matas abolished the eco-tax and inheritance tax. He promoted the construction of motorways on Mallorca and Ibiza and met with considerable resistance because of the associated environmental destruction. In 2007 he received the most votes again in the elections, but he did not succeed in forming the necessary coalition government and becoming President of the Balearic Islands again.

Corruption affair

In August 2008, a criminal case was opened against Jaume Matas for wasting public funds, bribery and abuse of office. An arrest warrant was issued against him on March 30, 2010; pre-trial detention was suspended on bail of three million euros, the highest amount ever imposed in Spain. The PP party then excluded Matas. He is accused of around a dozen offenses which, according to newspaper reports, could theoretically lead to prison sentences of up to 64 years if convicted. Iñaki Urdangarin , Duke of Palma and son-in-law of the Spanish King Juan Carlos I , is said to be involved in the unclean machinations of Matas ; he was also charged. Urdangarin was sentenced in June 2018 by the Spanish Supreme Court ( Tribunal Supremo ) to a prison sentence of five years and ten months for embezzlement of six million euros in taxpayers' money, fraud, forgery of documents and money laundering.

The focus of all the proceedings was the construction of the Palma Arena , a multifunctional sports hall with a cycle track in Palma de Mallorca. There were suspicions against Matas and other politicians that they had submitted falsified increased bills for settlement and had managed to put the difference to the real costs into their own pockets. In fact, the supposed construction costs more than doubled from the original estimate of around 48 to around 120 million euros. The Mallorca Zeitung described the arena as "the largest grave of millions on Mallorca".

In March 2012, Jaume Matas was sentenced in the first instance to six years in prison; This trial against a total of six defendants, which was accompanied by an unusually high level of public interest, was, however, only the prelude to around ten other trials against Matas and only dealt with a partial aspect. The politician was found guilty of hiring the journalist Antonio Alemany as speechwriter during his second term as President of the Balearic Islands by means of a manipulated tender and of having paid him money for work he had not done. In return, Alemany spread hymns of praise for the Matas government in its online newspaper and news agency. The payments were made through a PR agency to conceal the journalist's identity. The damage incurred is put at a total of 483,000 euros. Since Matas' attorney announced that he would appeal, his client was initially at large.

In July 2013, the Spanish Supreme Court reduced Matas's sentence from six years to nine months. In October 2013, the bail of 500,000 euros imposed on him was lifted. His passport was withdrawn, however, as another 26 investigations were pending against him. The five and a half year prison sentence imposed on his political companion, the former island president Maria Antònia Munar (called Princess of Mallorca ), was upheld by the court.

On July 11, 2014, the Supreme Court rejected Jaume Matas' pardon. Thus, the ex-President of the Balearic Government was the first high-ranking politician of the PP to go to prison for six months. On February 6, 2017, the public prosecutor of the Spanish Anti-Corruption Authority applied for five years 'imprisonment and nine years' professional ban for Jaume Matas for supporting the PP's election campaign costs with black money in the 2003 and 2007 election years and for contracting the companies that carried out the election campaigns.

In January 2018, the island council removed a plaque commemorating the inauguration of the Sóller tunnel by Matas in 1997.

In July 2019, Jaume Matas, who was now in custody, was sentenced to another ten months' imprisonment for manipulating the advertisement for the Son Espases hospital in Palma. The construction of this hospital was the most expensive construction contract ever awarded on Mallorca. The suspicion that Matas had received bribes of 30 million euros for this could not be substantiated.

Web links

Commons : Jaume Matas  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Jaume Matas. Biografías y Vidas. www.biografiasyvidas.com, April 3, 2008, accessed April 4, 2012 (Spanish).
  2. ↑ Jaume Matas Palou. www.buscabiografias.com, accessed April 4, 2012 (Spanish).
  3. ↑ Jaume Matas. Personajes famosos. www.abc.es, accessed April 4, 2012 (Spanish).
  4. ↑ ntv.de, wne / dpa: King Felipe's brother-in-law has to go to prison. In: n-tv.de. June 12, 2018, accessed June 8, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Mallorca newspaper v. June 18, 2008 as well as Mallorcazeitung v. August 12, 2009 Taz.de: "The ex-head of government and his palace" Taz-online from April 1, 2010
  6. ↑ Palma Arena case: Ex-Prime Minister Matas sentenced to six years in prison on mallorcazeitung.es v. March 22, 2012
  7. ↑ Questions & Answers about the Palma Arena case on mallorcazeitung.es v. February 9, 2012
  8. ↑ Justice scandal in Mallorca? Ex-Balearic President Jaume Matas receives only suspended sentence! July 24, 2013. Retrieved October 24, 2013 .
  9. ↑ Balearic President Jaume Matas at large without bail. October 23, 2013, accessed October 24, 2013 .
  10. ↑ "Princess of Mallorca" has to go to jail for good. October 16, 2013, accessed October 24, 2013 .
  11. ↑ Jaume Matas ingresará en prisión tras denegarle el indulto el Gobierno, El País. July 12, 2014, accessed July 12, 2014 .
  12. ↑ "El fiscal pide cinco años de cárcel para Matas por financiar al PP balear con dinero negro." In: El País of February 6, 2017
  13. ↑ Mallorca newspaper: Inselrat Mallorca removes the Matas memorial plaque at the Sóller tunnel. In: mallorcazeitung.es. January 5, 2018, accessed June 9, 2019 .
  14. ↑ Mallorca Zeitung: Ex-Prime Minister Matas sentenced to ten months in prison in the Son Espases case. In: mallorcazeitung.es. July 12, 2019, accessed June 8, 2020 .
  15. ↑ Mallorca Zeitung: The big mess around Son Espases. In: mallorcazeitung.es. August 4, 2019, accessed June 8, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Matas, Jaume
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Matas i Palou, Jaume (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Spanish politician
DATE OF BIRTH 5th October 1954
PLACE OF BIRTH Palma