The Power Of Love: Jaume Matas

From the start of his second presidency until anti-corruption investigations began to unravel his world, six years had passed in the life of Jaume Matas. For each one of these years, he has now been condemned to serve the equivalent in prison. Possibly. At present, he remains at liberty. His sentence is to be appealed, the Supreme Court will be invited to ratify (or not) the decision of a Palma court, though there is still the small matter of numerous other trials that await Matas.

We now no longer have to pussyfoot. Or do we? Matas' lawyer argues that the higher court has often overturned decisions by lower courts, indeed he appears confident that the Supreme Court will overturn the sentence against Matas. In his view, Matas remains innocent. Can we dispense with the pussyfooting, or do we still have to resort to the "allegedly" caveat?

The essence of the first trial as part of the "caso Palma Arena" and of the guilty verdicts delivered against Matas, journalist Antonio Alemany, ex-director of government communication Joan Martorell and head of the Nimbus PR agency Miguel Romero was that Alemany received payments well in excess of what he was entitled to in writing speeches and glowing articles about Matas and his government and that Alemany's businesses, a news agency and an online newspaper, benefited from government funds.

Matas' offence, put in basic terms, was that he bought favours, while Alemany, condemned by the prosecution as being "fiercely independent except when it came to money and power", was happy to be the one being bought.

On the face of it, this has been an open-and-shut case of corruption in public office, but for journalists with the Spanish media reporting the case and now analysing its verdicts, there has to be a slight nag in the back of their minds. What Matas and the others did was to set up an arrangement that was not out in the open, unlike the system of government funds that have been paid, quite legitimately, to newspaper publishers. Alemany's online newspaper has made a point of itemising the payment of these funds. Alemany's independence was bought, but how truly can the Spanish press locally be said to be totally independent when it has been a government beneficiary?

Why, though, would Matas have gone to the lengths that he apparently did in order to obtain favourable press coverage? I'm not sure that this question has been adequately answered or even discussed. A hint as to the answer may lie with what has emerged of Matas, a man depicted as vain and a power freak who dominated his government. It is, without getting too deep into the psychology of someone known only through press reporting, a not untypical extension of a combination of vanity and power to also seek to be "loved". One way of doing so is to buy the right reporting. Another way is to buy something that will guarantee the love. Robert Maxwell was an example. When I once asked an executive at one of Maxwell's companies why he wanted to buy Manchester United, the answer was simple. He wanted to be loved by the fans.

It is still difficult, though, to really understand. Alemany wrote for a newspaper not exactly ill-disposed to the Partido Popular ("El Mundo") in any event. One has to presume that the arrangement with Alemany was one of guaranteeing that that fierce independence didn't suddenly include criticism. But it was also a case of power going to the head, of believing that anything could be done with impunity, including abuse of public office in blatantly manipulating the media (rather than the more subtle or less overt ways by which the press is influenced). In Matas and Alemany, from their performances and demeanour as reported and depicted in court (including the pre-trial declarations that Matas made), here were two people who appeared to mock the court, who gave the impression of being superior.

Ultimately, as the prosecution has put it, everything comes back to power and to money. And now that the court, notwithstanding the appeal and reference to the Supreme Court, has had its say, a "cascade" of repentance is expected from various of the accused in other parts of the Palma Arena case. The game is up, they might believe, and will have noted that neither Martorell nor Romero, who confessed, will actually go to jail. What more, though, awaits Jaume Matas? And what also now awaits the Duke of Palma, for whom the verdict, it is being said, has made his part in the whole affair that much more "complicated"?


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.