ARTICULO EN THE ECONOMIST Rajoy there! Mariano Rajoy is under new pressure in a political-corruption scandal Jul 20th 2013 | MADRID |From the print edition THE Spanish prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, is known for wearing down opponents by digging in his heels and biding his time. “Life is about resisting,” he texted Rosalía Iglesias, wife of his Popular Party’s (PP) former treasurer, Luis Bárcenas, as a scandal engulfed him two years ago. Now Mr Bárcenas’s decision to go public in the press and before a magistrate about two decades of illicit PP financing, along with the leaking of text messages, is testing Mr Rajoy’s own capacity for resistance. Four years after investigators began unravelling a web of PP corruption, Mr Bárcenas started to sing on July 15th. In an interview with El Mundo, he had already claimed there were systematic cash payments to Mr Rajoy and other bigwigs. On July 17th the paper published 14 pages of secret accounts, which tally with similar ones in its rival, El País. They show donations by construction firms that won big public contracts from PP governments. It is increasingly apparent that Mr Rajoy ran a party in which personal graft and illegal funding were common. In this section Shirtsleeve time In the dumps Rajoy there! Guilty as charged Reaching for the clouds Reprints Related topics Politics Government and politics World politics European politics Spanish politics In February Mr Rajoy denied receiving “black” money himself, though his name has appeared in the secret accounts. Had he declared any cash payments to the taxmen, which is not clear, his denial would be correct. But it would still not explain where the money came from. The opposition is demanding answers in parliament, threatening otherwise to propose a no-confidence motion. But the secret to Mr Rajoy’s ability to hang on lies precisely in parliament, where he has an absolute majority and exercises iron control over his deputies. The next election is not due until 2015. Grumbles within the party will not shift him. Even the documents Mr Bárcenas handed to magistrates this week seem unlikely to bring investigators to his door. Yet Mr Rajoy has a dangerous and unpredictable enemy in Mr Bárcenas. Having doggedly protected him for years, the PP is now calling its former treasurer a “liar” and a “crook”. The change is dramatic. “Be strong. I’ll call you tomorrow,” Mr Rajoy texted him soon after allegations about the payments were first published and details of at least €20m ($26m) that Mr Bárcenas had hidden in Swiss bank accounts were made public. Perhaps that is why Mr Bárcenas felt he could, literally, give a group of waiting journalists the finger. Mr Bárcenas claims that the money came from private business deals, but he has still been jailed as a flight risk. And who believes him, or Mr Rajoy? As the PP president since 2004, the prime minister is politically responsible for five years of alleged illicit funding (which stopped several years ago). Jointly, the donating companies received €12.3 billion in public contracts from the PP. Spaniards are fed up with all their politicians. On July 16th a magistrate accused the main Catalan party of taking illegal funding from Ferrovial, a builder. And the Socialists have their own graft scandal in their southern fief of Andalucia. Worst of all, Spaniards must cope with double-dip recession, falling wages, spending cuts and 27% unemployment. Politicians and builders, who jointly pumped up the housing bubble, are seen as at the root of their problems. Mr Rajoy’s refusal to take responsibility for his party’s dirty secrets does nothing
Posted on: Sat, 20 Jul 2013 07:37:42 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015