José Luis Martínez-Almeida Navasqüés (born 17 April 1975) is a Spanish state lawyer and politician. A member of the
People's Party (PP), he has been a member of the
Madrid City Council
The City Council of Madrid ( es, Ayuntamiento de Madrid) is the top-tier administrative and governing body of the Madrid, the capital and biggest city of Spain.
The City Council is composed by three bodies; the Mayor who leads the City Council an ...
since 2015 and has been
Mayor of Madrid
The Mayor of Madrid presides over the Madrid City Council, the government body of the capital city of Spain. The mayor has the duty of boosting the local policies, it directs the action of the other executive bodies, leads the Local Executive Admi ...
since 2019.
Biography
Martínez-Almeida was born in
Madrid
Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...
on 17 April 1975. His grandfather Pablo Martínez-Almeida y Nacarino was a member of the Privy Council of the
Count of Barcelona
The Count of Barcelona ( ca, Comte de Barcelona, es, Conde de Barcelona, french: Comte de Barcelone, ) was the ruler of the County of Barcelona and also, by extension and according with the Usages of Barcelona, usages and Catalan constitutions, of ...
, he is the youngest of the six children of Rafael Martínez-Almeida y León y Castillo and Ángela Navasqüés Cobián.
He studied at the Retamar School in
Pozuelo de Alarcón
Pozuelo de Alarcón () is a municipality in the Community of Madrid, Spain. Bordering the Moncloa-Aravaca district of Madrid proper to its west, Pozuelo de Alarcón is surrounded by large Mediterranean pine-tree forests: the Casa de Campo, the ...
, linked to the
Opus Dei
Opus Dei, formally known as the Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei ( la, Praelatura Sanctae Crucis et Operis Dei), is an institution of the Catholic Church whose members seek personal Christian holiness and strive to imbue their work an ...
.
Martínez-Almeida affiliated to the
People's Party (PP) when he was 20 years old,
and he earned a
Licentiate degree
A licentiate (abbreviated Lic.) is an academic degree present in many countries, representing different educational levels.
It may be similar to a master's degree when issued by pontifical universities and other universities in Europe, Latin Ame ...
in law at the
ICADE
ICADE is the brand name by which two schools of the Comillas Pontifical University, located in Madrid (Spain), are known. It stands for '' Instituto Católico de Administración y Dirección de Empresas'' (''Catholic Institute of Business Administ ...
(
Comillas Pontifical University
Comillas Pontifical University ( es, Universidad Pontificia Comillas) is a private Catholic higher education institution run by the Spanish Province of the Society of Jesus in Madrid Spain.
The university is involved in a number of academic exch ...
) in 1998.
In 2001, he joined the
State Lawyers Corps
The State Lawyers Corps (Spanish: ''Cuerpo de Abogados del Estado'') is a body of top civil servants in Spain, dependent on the Solicitor General of the State, itself organically integrated (currently) within the Ministry of Justice.
It was crea ...
.
He served as Director-General for Historic Heritage of the
Community of Madrid
The Community of Madrid (; es, Comunidad de Madrid ) is one of the seventeen autonomous communities of Spain. It is located in the centre of the Iberian Peninsula, and of the Central Plateau (''Meseta Central''). Its capital and largest munici ...
from 2007 to 2011. In 2011,
Esperanza Aguirre
Esperanza Aguirre y Gil de Biedma (; born 3 January 1952) is a Spanish politician. As member of the People's Party (PP), she served as President of the Senate between 1999 and 2002 (becoming the first female politician to have held the post), a ...
, the region's premier, appointed him as Secretary of the
Council of Government of the Community of Madrid. He left the regional government in 2013 in order to become a member of the General Secretariat and Council of state-owned enterprise SEPIDES (currently
SEPI
''Sociedad Estatal de Participaciones Industriales'' (SEPI) is a Spanish state holding company that is characterized as a Sovereign wealth fund. It is controlled by the Ministry of the Treasury.
SEPI was preceded by the Instituto Nacional de Ind ...
) as Secretary of the Law Division. He left this post in 2015.
Aguirre included Martínez-Almeida as a principal figure in the candidacy of PP for the
2015 Madrid municipal election and the later became municipal councillor. In 2017, as Aguirre resigned from her last offices following the detention of her political "''dauphin''"
Ignacio González, Martínez-Almeida replaced her as Spokesperson of the PP's Municipal Group in the City Council. His interventions as leader of the opposition made him widely known.
In July 2018, he was appointed member of the National Executive Committee of the PP after the election of
Pablo Casado as party leader.
In January 2019, he was designated candidate of the PP to be the next
Mayor of Madrid
The Mayor of Madrid presides over the Madrid City Council, the government body of the capital city of Spain. The mayor has the duty of boosting the local policies, it directs the action of the other executive bodies, leads the Local Executive Admi ...
.
Mayor of Madrid
He ran first in the PP list for the
2019 Madrid municipal election. Martínez-Almeida lost the council election against
Manuela Carmena
Manuela Carmena Castrillo (; born in 1944) is a retired Spanish lawyer and judge who served as Mayor of Madrid from June 2015 to June 2019. She was a member of the General Council of the Judiciary.
Biography Early life
She was born on 9 Feb ...
,
Más Madrid
Más Madrid ( en, "More Madrid") is a progressive regional political party in Spain. Its primary strength is located in the city of Madrid. It advocates for participatory democracy and promotes green politics, having cooperated with like-minded ...
, but due to a coalition agreement among PP
Popular Party, C's
Citizens
Citizenship is a "relationship between an individual and a state to which the individual owes allegiance and in turn is entitled to its protection".
Each state determines the conditions under which it will recognize persons as its citizens, and ...
and
Vox, he was invested as Mayor on 15 June 2019, during the opening session of the new
municipal corporation
A municipal corporation is the legal term for a local governing body, including (but not necessarily limited to) cities, counties, towns, townships, charter townships, villages, and boroughs. The term can also be used to describe municipally owne ...
.
During the campaign, the PP pledged to get rid of the star measure of the previous municipal administration: the low emission zone
Madrid Central
Madrid Central is a low-emission zone located in the center of Madrid. It was inaugurated on November 30, 2018.
There is little industry in the center of the city, and vehicular traffic has been responsible for a significant proportion of emi ...
. As promised, on July 1, the City Council led by Martínez-Almeida suspended the system for three months by ceasing to fine infractions. Environmental groups such as
Greenpeace
Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by Irving Stowe and Dorothy Stowe, immigrant environmental activists from the United States. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth t ...
cut roads in protest. However, a week later a court in Madrid restored the fines. After more than one year of legal dispute, in July 2020, the derogation of the measure was supported by a judicial sentence, but the municipal government maintained the fines.
During the
COVID-19 sanitary crisis Martínez-Almeida garnered the support of all parties in the City Council. His performance gained him notoriety and recognition. After the first confinement, the City Council of Madrid was the first major administration to reach a transversal reconstruction plan.
In September 2021, Almeida's government banned the in-person participation of neighbors in the plenary meetings of the district councils.
He tested positive for
COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...
on 21 December 2021 during the pandemic in Spain.
In April 2022, it came to light that his government was involved in a scandal for awarding several contracts to companies managed by aristocrat Luis Medina Abascal, son of
Nati Abascal
Natividad Abascal y Romero-Toro (born 2 April 1943, in Seville, Spain), more commonly known as Naty Abascal () formerly, the Duchess of Feria, is a Spanish socialite and former fashion model. She has been a member of the International Best Dre ...
and the
Duke of Feria; and his partner, Alberto Javier Luceño Cerón, two businessmen who mediated in the purchase of sanitary material with the Madrid City Council in March 2020, during the worst moment of the
COVID-19 pandemic in Spain
The COVID-19 pandemic in Spain has resulted in confirmed cases of COVID-19 and deaths.
The virus was first confirmed to have spread to Spain on 31 January 2020, when a German tourist tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 in La Gomera, Canary Island ...
and a few days after the
state of alarm was declared, with whom them both took millionaire commissions for various contracts, being investigated by the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Martinez-Almeida, Jose Luis
Mayors of Madrid
Madrid city councillors (2015–2019)
Madrid city councillors (2019–2023)
Living people
1975 births
Members of the State Lawyers Corps
COVID-19 pandemic in Spain