| Jesús Gil | |
|---|---|
| Mayor of Marbella | |
| In office June 15, 1991 – April 24, 2002 |
|
| Deputy | Pedro Román |
| Preceded by | Francisco Parra Medina |
| Succeeded by | Julián Muñoz |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Gregorio Jesús Gil y Gil March 11, 1933 El Burgo de Osma, Castile and León, Spain |
| Died | May 14, 2004 (aged 71) Madrid, Spain |
| Resting place | La Almudena cemetery |
| Nationality | Spanish |
| Political party | GIL |
| Spouse(s) | María de los Angeles Marín Cobo |
| Occupation | Businessman |
Gregorio Jesús Gil y Gil (March 11, 1933 – May 14, 2004) was a Spanish businessman and politician. He served as Mayor of Marbella, between 1996 and 2002, and was also known for his 16-year stint as president of Spanish football club Atlético Madrid.
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Born in El Burgo de Osma, Soria, Gil made most of his money in the construction business. He was arrested and spent time in jail in 1967 when one of his buildings in Los Ángeles de San Rafael (Segovia) collapsed, killing 58 people. He was eventually released by order of the Spanish Head of State Francisco Franco, after allegedly paying a sum of money.
In 1987, Gil was elected president at football side Atlético Madrid (his first signing being 21-year-old Portuguese winger Paulo Futre), where he initiated a volatile relationship with fans, reporters, players and head coaches (his team's and the opponents') alike. In 1992 he shut down Atlético's youth academy, which saw talented 15-year-old Raúl switch to crosstown rivals Real Madrid and eventually achieve legendary status there. He quickly became disdained by much of Atlético's following.
Winning the La Liga became an obsession for Gil as he impulsively went through head coaches before Raddy Antic finally delivered the league title in 1996 - the club's first in 19 years. Along the way, Gil was involved in many public incidents.
An infamous event was his row with José María Caneda and José González Fidalgo (SD Compostela club's president and chief executive officer, respectively) in front of the Professional League headquarters in 1996, allegedly due to Caneda's prior derision of the inhabitants of Marbella for electing Gil as their mayor - he had won the seat on May 26, 1991. After a first verbal exchange with both Caneda and Fidalgo, Gil punched the latter in the face and a noisy altercation ensued, both in front of the building and along its hallways and stairways, during all of which Gil, protected by his bodyguards and broadcast live via TV and radio, boisterously uttered phrases such as "¡Ha insultado a toda la gente de Marbella, el 'hijoputa' este que es un ladrón!" ("This son of a bitch, this thief, has insulted the people of Marbella!").
The swift and instinctive action of the bodyguards, and their demeanor towards both Caneda and Fidalgo, are probably all the more significant since most of Marbella's local police were recruited indirectly by Gil among legionnaires and members of other elite military forces throughout southern Spain and Northern Africa during the 80s and 90s, and some of these officers usually comprised Gil's own private garde de corps.[1][2]
In a March 1997 incident as the two teams met in the 1996–97 Champions League quarterfinals, Gil referred to Ajax Amsterdam, due to its many players of Surinamese origin, as FC Congo.
In 1991, Gil founded and led the Grupo Independiente Liberal (GIL) as his political vehicle. In April 2002, he was banned for 28 years from holding public office, forced to stand down as mayor and briefly imprisoned.[3][4] He died from a brain hemorrhage, aged 71.
At the beginning of 2008, a full, two-episode documentary appeared in Tele 5 explaining the highlights of his life and career.[5][6]
Gil was famous and controversial for his extreme right-wing political views, summed up in a unique brand of foulmouthed, low-brow populism punctuated by sexist, homophobic, racist and xenophobic remarks and, occasionally, by pre-democratic nostalgia.
It was not unusual for him to publicly and loudly refer to former Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) town councilor Isabel García Marcos as a "whore" during town council meetings and, on one occasion, he dubbed journalist Carmen Rigalt as "jinetera del periodismo" (prostitute of journalism). His critics labeled his business dealings as shady, hinting at ties to organized crime. The Málaga coastline, effectively under the area of economic and political influence of the Gil family, became a popular residence for British, Italian, and Russian gangsters while he was mayor, as well as a haven for former Nazis either awaiting or avoiding extradition, such as Otto Remer and, most famously, Léon Degrelle.
At the same time, however, Gil instigated several crackdowns on drug users and prostitutes. He was involved in several criminal cases, including the so called Caso de las camisetas.[3] and Caso Atlético.[4] Although it is true that blue collar crime rates and open manifestations of poverty decreased dramatically during the first years of his administration, there was widespread public perception, and some evidence, that most of this apparent success was obtained to the expense of civil liberties and freedom of speech, and that the means employed to this end were objectable to say the least. Those included: beatings of petty delinquents and prostitutes, deportation of foreigners with a low income, individual handouts of moderate sums of money to homeless people in exchange for leaving town, etc.
The subsequent improvement in the lifestyle of a segment of the population, albeit more apparent than real, was one of the main reasons for his landslide reelections. Some celebrities residing in Marbella, such as Gunilla von Bismarck and Sean Connery, at times participated in Gil's campaigns for reelection.
| Sporting positions | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Francisco Javier Castedo |
President of Atlético Madrid 1987 - 2003 |
Succeeded by Enrique Cerezo |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by Francisco Parra Medina |
Mayor of Marbella 1991 – 2002 |
Succeeded by Julián Muñoz |