Lluís Gratallops

Lluís Gratallops ORLJ
Gratallops in 2002.
Prime Minister of the Rodaves
In office 9 May 1998 – 2 April 2006
Monarch	Caterina Sofia
Deputy	Josuè Botxí Marc Flors Julià Tremp
Preceded by	Joan Gerard Cerc
Succeeded by	Domènec Duesaigües
In office 21 September 2009 – 4 February 2011
Monarch	Lluís Josep IV
Preceded by	Domènec Duesaigües
Succeeded by	Pere Martí
President of Vinga Rodagues
In office 16 October 1997 – 20 June 2013
Succeeded by	Eduard Crescas
Leader of the Opposition
In office 2 April 2006 – 21 September 2009
Preceded by	Domènec Duesaigües
Succeeded by	Raül Cardedeu
In office 4 February 2011 – 20 June 2013
Preceded by	Raül Cardedeu
Succeeded by	Eduard Crescas
Member of Parliament
In office 16 October 1997 – 20 June 2013
Constituency	Les Franqueses del Vallès
Personal details
Born	Lluís Antoni Gratallops i Agricola (1951-02-20) 20 February 1951 L'Aldea, Rodaves
Political party	Leading Our Future (2014-Present)
Other political affiliations	Vinga Rodagues (1997–2014)
Spouses	Carla Ossó de Sió (m. 1975; div. 1988) Victòria Torrelavit (m. 1990; div. 2010)
Domestic partners	Francesca Puigverd (2013–2020) Maria Falset (2020–present)
Children	At least 6
Parents	Ferran Lluís Gratallops i Subirats Ona Agricola i Pinell
Residence(s)	L'Aldea, Rodaves
Education	University of L'Aldea
Awards	List of honours and decorations
Net worth	UD$8.0 billion (as of 30 April 2021)
Signature
Website	www.vingagratallops.ro

Lluís Antoni Gratallops i Agricola, ORLJ (born 20 February 1951) is a Rodavese media tycoon and politician who served as Prime Minister of the Rodaves from 1998 to 2005 and again from 2009 to 2011. Gratallops was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1998 to 2013 for Les Franqueses del Vallès, covering many suburbs of L'Aldea. He is the most recent Prime Minister of the Rodaves not to be a member of the National Workers' Union (UNO).

Gratallops is the controlling shareholder of Mitivest and owned the Rodavese football club L'Aldea C.F.C. from 1996 to 2017. He has been consistently ranked as one of the richest men in the world with a net worth of UD$8.0 billion. He has also been ranked throughout the 2000s as one of the most powerful men in the world for his domination of Rodavese politics as the president of Vinga Rodagues for fifteen years.

Gratallops served as Prime Minister for over nine years in total, making him the longest serving Prime Minister in the modern era of Rodavese politics. He was also the youngest Prime Minister ever elected at the time of the 1998 election. Gratallops was the leader of the right wing Vinga Rodagues from 1997 to 2013. Since 2017, he has been a devout supporter for Leading Our Future, the successor to his Vinga Rodagues party, hosting several campaign rallies for the party.

On 12 December 2013, he was convicted of tax fraud by the High Court of Justice of the Rodaves, confirming his four-year prison sentence along with a public office ban for two years. Because he had been sentenced to a gross imprisonment for more than two years, a new Rodavese anti-corruption law led to the Generalitat expelling and barring him from serving in any legislative office for five years.

Gratallops is internationally known for his populist political style and brash personality. He still remains a controversial figure who divides public opinion and political analysts. Supporters emphasize his leadership skills and charismatic power, his fiscal policy based on tax reduction, and his ability to maintain strong and close foreign relations with the United Dominions. In general, critics address his performance as a politician, the ethics of his government practices in relation to his business holdings, and unnecessary interference in wars overseas. He has been accused of having mismanaged the state budget and of increasing the Rodavese government debt. He has also been heavily criticized for vigorous pursuit of his personal interests while in office, including benefitting from his own companies' growth due to policies promoted by his governments, and being blackmailed as leader because of his turbulent private life.

Early Life

Photograph of Gratallops in 1982 in L'Aldea.

Born and raised in L'Aldea on the coast of Montagut in an upper middle-class family. His father, Ferran Lluís Gratallops i Subirats (1923-2004), worked in the Rodavese railroad industry, and his mother Mariona "Ona" Agricola i Pinell (1926-2020), served as a housewife. Lluís was the first of three children, he has a sister, Maria Francesca Gratallops i Agricola (born 1958) and a brother, Lluc Gratallops (born 1964). He studied at the Escola Santa Llúcia, located in inner L'Aldea. He later moved from the Escola Santa Llúcia to the Institut Antoni d'Oristà, a public high school.

After completing his secondary school education, he studied chemical engineering at the University of L'Aldea, graduating with honours in 1976. During his university studies, he played guitar and sang in a rock band called "Rumors Lletjos" ("Ugly Rumours"), and performed some stand-up comedy.

In 1975, he married Carla Ossó de Sió after meeting her at university, and they had two children: Maria (born 1981), and Pere (born 1984).

Business Career

Síntesi

Main article: Sintesi

He became involved in the media industry setting up a small cable television company. After expanding and creating the media group Mitivest, which expanded into a country-wide network of local TV stations.

He became involved in the pharmaceutical industry setting up the small business Síntesi producing chemical compounds. After not seeing much success, Gratallops shifted to focusing on pharmaceutical research. Sintesi developed a drug discovery program focused on in vitro synthesis to augment its research in fermentation technology. In 1989, the company established an animal health division.

Logo for Síntesi (1996—2001)

In the 1990s, the company would expand domestically and abroad, establishing offices in several other countries. In 1990, Sintesi would move it's headquarters out of L'Aldea to Cartaganca.

The company grew in size and acquired the Rodavese pharmaceutical companies Laboratoris Rajoler and Laboratoris Guineu.

Mitivest

Main article: Mitivest

Gratallops attending a board meeting, in the 1980s

In 1993, Gratallops would eventually consolidate his pharmaceutical brand under self-established holding group Mitivest. In the five years leading up to the 1998 election he earned some 250 million Rodavese florí ($62.5 million). The funding sources are still unknown because of its complex holding company system, despite investigations conducted by various state attorneys.

Gratallops would heavily involve itself in the finance and investment, with Toni Ullal he founded Riquesa Precisa, one of the country's biggest banking and insurance groups. Gratallops also would invest in major banks, with Mitivest controlling about 1% of Banc Estandard.

Mitivest would purchase media outlets and TV stations as well. In 1994, Mitivest completed an acquisition of Emissora Nacional (EN), one of the largest public broadcasters in the Rodaves. Mitivest would only sell the business in October 2019.

Gratallops would expand his influence in the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries with Mitivest taking large stakes in the majority-government owned healthcare company SSR. Mitivest's most notable acquisition came in 1995 with its buyout of the largest pharmaceutical company in the country Préssec for $54.5 billion. Mitivest would greatly benefit from Gratallops and his party's healthcare legislation, spearheaded by the 2002 private healthcare bill which would greatly reduce the government's sponsorship of the SSR and give more benefits to private healthcare providers.

In 2008, after the Duesaigües government had weakened private involvement in the healthcare industry, Mitivest would sell Préssec and sell off almost half their shares of the SSR.

On 9 July 2012, a Cartaganca court ordered Mitivest to pay 2.2 billion florís in damages to Alemnar Group in a long-running legal dispute. Mitivest's voting rights on Riquesa Precisa was also capped at 9.9999% by Rodaves Insurance Supervisory Authority despite owning about 36% share capital of the financial conglomerate.

In 2013, Gratallops was forced by the High Court of Justice of the Rodaves to give up at least half of his ownership of Mitivest and Mitivest would have to sell off their remaining shares of the SSR. While Gratallops would no longer majority-own Mitivest Holding, he was still the largest shareholder and would serve as chairman until his resignation on 22 June 2013 in favor of his daughter, Maria

On 5 August 2016, Mitivest announced the signing of a preliminary agreement to sell all of their shares of L'Aldea C.F.C. abroad. The deal was scheduled to be finalized by the end of 2016. On 13 April 2017, Gratallops sold L'Aldea to Fontcoberta Sport Investment for a total of $830 million after a 24-year reign.

Political Career

On 16 October 1997, Gratallops would found the political party Vinga Rodagues in opposition to the status quo and de facto two-party system in the Rodaves. Gratallops spent most of his business career as large donor to the National Workers' Union and a supporter of the Bellmunt government. He declared himself an independent before the 1994 Rodavese general election, describing his beliefs as "populist and pro-worker".

Gratallops rapidly rose to the forefront of Rodavese politics in May 1998. He was elected to the Generalitat for the first time and appointed as Prime Minister following the 1998 Rodavese general election, when Vinga Rodagues gained a relative majority a mere seven months after having been launched.