Ex-Balearic president caught up in Qatargate

Bauzá has become caught up in Qatargate as he was head of the EU-Qatar Friendship Group, which - as he stated on Twitter on December 12 - was being suspended "in view of the very serious events of the last few days, and until we get to the bottom of the matter".

In September last year, Bauzá went to Qatar with Marc Tarabella, a Belgian MEP whose home was searched last weekend; Tarabella is not one of those to have been charged with corruption by the Belgian authorities.

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He has said that he understands suspicions surrounding him for having publicly defended Qatar in various ways. Regarding posts he has made on social media about Qatar over the past couple of years, he explains that these were to show that a series of steps are taking place in line with "what we have all been demanding" of Qatar and other countries to improve rights.

There have been advances, but these "do not mean, far from it, that these countries meet the requirements that we all recognise as democratic countries.

As for the visit to Qatar last September, Bauzá explained on Twitter at the time that this was to learn about the situation of hundreds of Afghan child refugees.

* José Ramón Bauzá was a member of the Partido Popular when he was president. He left the party and is now a member of Ciudadanos.