Rita Barberá


María Rita Barberá Nolla was a Spanish politician and the Mayor of Valencia, Spain from 1991 until 2015.

Biography and political career

Born in Valencia to a prominent industrial and political family, she was a member of the National Council of the People's Party of Spain and was a Representative in the Valencian regional Parliament. She turned down an offer to become a national deputy at the 2008 Spanish General Election, but her party made her a senator after she lost the 2015 municipal elections. As such, she became answerable only to the Tribunal Supremo, and the ordinary judge in charge of the Taula corruption case could therefore not indict her like the rest of her team.

2016 judicial case and death

On 21 April 2016, this investigating judge therefore requested her indictment for money laundering to the Tribunal Supremo. On 13 September 2016 the Tribunal Supremo opened a formal investigation, usually the step before an indictment, and the People's Party asked her to resign her senate seat. She chose instead to formally leave the party and to become an independent senator, remaining answerable only to the Tribunal Supremo and keeping her senator salary. Until her death, she continued to socialize and vote with the party that she had formally left.
Barberá died in Madrid on 23 November 2016 of a heart attack as a result of hepatic cirrhosis. She was in the process of being investigated for money laundering at the time, and had testified to the Tribunal Supremo only two days prior to her death.