Ourense mayor faces trial push

A local corruption case in northwest Spain just moved closer to trial. The target is Gonzalo Pérez Jácome, the mayor of Ourense and leader of Democracia Ourensana. The fight is over a pretty simple rule on paper — if you take a public salary for exclusive dedication, you are not supposed to keep running private business activity without formal compatibility approval. What changed this week is that the provincial prosecutor’s office said Jácome’s arguments do not hold up and asked the court to move ahead toward trial. ### What is he accused of? The accusation is continued administrative prevarication — basically, knowingly acting against the legal rules that govern the office. The judge who closed the investigation in April said Jácome allegedly stayed on an exclusive-dedication mayoral salary while also carrying on private professional activity, especially the direction or ownership-linked work around local broadcaster Auria TV, without asking the city council plenary for the compatibility authorization the law requires. (lavozdegalicia.es) ### Why does “exclusive dedication” matter so much? Because that is the whole hinge of the case. An exclusive-dedication post is paid on the premise that the officeholder is not simultaneously pursuing outside professional work unless the incompatibility rules are cleared. The judge’s April order framed the issue as running from June 2019 onward, and even pointed to possible harm to municipal finances because Jácome kept collecting that public salary under conditions the court says may have been unlawful. (poderjudicial.es) ### What did prosecutors say now? They pushed back directly on Jácome’s attempt to knock out the case. La Voz de Galicia says the Ourense prosecutor’s office dismissed his defense arguments and described the private activities as “absolutely incompatible” with his public pay. Separately, Europa Press reported the same office plans to accuse him of prevarication but not, for now, to add the more serious counts of embezzlement and document falsification sought by the private accuser. (poderjudicial.es) ### Where did those extra accusations come from? From the private prosecution, led by former Democracia Ourensana councilor Telmo Ucha. He asked the court to go further and treat the case not just as prevarication but also as possible embezzlement and false documentation. Prosecutors did not go that far. That matters because it narrows the immediate legal fight — the state’s case is focused on the incompatibility issue, not the broader package of alleged wrongdoing. (lavozdegalicia.es) ### Is Jácome already on trial? Not yet. He is very close, but the procedural step here is still the push toward opening oral trial proceedings. The investigating judge finished the instruction phase on April 14, 2026, and sent the case to the parties so they could either seek trial or ask for dismissal. The prosecutor has now chosen the trial path. (lavozdegalicia.es) ### Why is this bigger than one paperwork dispute? Because this is not really about a missing form in the abstract. It is about whether a mayor can keep the benefits of a full-time public post while also keeping one foot in private business. In a city where Jácome has long been a disruptive political figure, that question lands as both a legal test and a credibility test for local government. (poderjudicial.es) ### What happens next? The court still has to decide the next procedural move, but the direction is clearer now. If the judge follows the prosecutor’s request, Jácome will move from investigated mayor to defendant headed for the bench in a prevarication trial. The narrower charge also means the next stage should turn on one core question — whether he knowingly kept an incompatible arrangement in place while drawing exclusive public pay. (lavozdegalicia.es) ### Bottom line? The news is not that the case exists — that happened in April. The news is that prosecutors reviewed Jácome’s defense and still want the case tried. That makes the legal risk more concrete, and it leaves the mayor of Ourense closer than ever to having to answer the incompatibility case in open court. (lavozdegalicia.es)