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 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 Adm ...

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, 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 ...

. Martínez-Almeida affiliated to the People's Party (PP) when he was 20 years old, and he earned a Licentiate degree 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 Admini ...

(

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. 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 munic ...

from 2007 to 2011. In 2011, Esperanza Aguirre, 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 Pablo Casado Blanco (; born 1 February 1981) is a Spanish former politician. He was a member of the Congress of Deputies representing Madrid until 4 April 2022, having previously represented Ávila between 2011 and 2019. From 2015 to 2018, he al ...

as party leader. In January 2019, he was designated candidate of the PP to be the next

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-mind ...

, 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 ...

. During the campaign, the PP pledged to get rid of the star measure of the previous municipal administration: the low emission zone Madrid Central. 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 identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quick ...

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 and a few days after the

state of alarm In Spain the state of alarm (''estado de alarma'') is the lowest of the three degrees of state of emergency that allows the government to perform actions or impose policies that it would normally not be permitted to undertake. It is regulated in t ...

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