Matas In Exile

Segovia is a city in Castile and Leon with a long and rich history. In 1474, as an example, Isabel the Catholic was proclaimed queen of Castile in the church of San Miguel, and the rest was thus history. She married Ferdinand, Spain was united, the Muslims were subjugated once and for all, Columbus invented America, Spain ruled the world and the world got a beer named after the church.

Into this cradle of Spanish empire last Monday strode a former president of the Balearics. Jaume Matas had an appointment with the keeper of the keys at Segovia's prison. He was welcomed in, the door was shut and the key was turned. Segovia's prison, unlike other buildings in the city, doesn't have a long and rich history. It is modern, it is under-occupied, it is low risk. Most of its occupants are classified as low risk. Matas will be classified thus. He may be reclassified within a short time as low-low risk, meaning he can go out during the day and only have to sleep at the prison.

His attempt to be pardoned having failed, Matas was, right up to the moment when he entered prison, seeking alternatives, such as community service - coming back to the island he stole from and cleaning the beaches (or something like that). Once these alternatives were exhausted, he opted - as is his right - for the cushiest prison gig going. And why not? He is, after all, head of the Balearic Government in exile. One day he will return and stride victoriously around the site of his greatest achievement and greatest loss of public money, the Palma Arena, arm in arm with Iñaki Urdangarin and be greeted by cheering and admiring citizens of Mallorca who understand how wronged he has been.

Well, he might think this, because Jaume still really doesn't seem to get it. What, after all, were 483,186 euros of public funds that were handed over to his tame propagandist, Antonio Alemany, so that the journo could write glowing accounts of his glorious reign? Why does he deserve to be banged up for such a trifling amount, having been pursued by a bunch of bloody ingrates in Mallorca who had forgotten just how much good he had done?

There are others who don't appear to get it, who believe that they, too, are entitled to special consideration. Maria Munar, struggling, so we are told, to adapt to life in prison, a year on from having started her sentence, is seeking third-grade classification, meaning she can have day release. Alemany, he also having had a request for a pardon turned down, has had the date of his entrance into prison put back until September, the same month that Carlos Fabra is due to start a four-year sentence for fraud in Castellon. Friends are gathering signatures to petition for a pardon for him.

You shouldn't of course only go on appearances, but if you do, then Fabra, the ex-president of Castellon, would have been played by Brando or De Niro. Those friends wanting to get him pardoned insist that he is "an honest person". Mariano Rajoy once described him as an "exemplary politician". Yes, but exemplary of what? There is a truly hideous sculpture at the white-elephant Castellon airport which features the face of Fabra. The honest truth is that, like Matas, Fabra succumbed to the vanity which power brings. And this vanity remains of such an order that it leads both of them to believe that they are above the law or that the law owes them a favour. The law does not, but there are plenty who would argue that it already has shown Matas a favour by reducing his six-year sentence to nine months and who fear that further favours might follow. Matas is facing several other charges. How many pardons can one man ask for?