Canarian Weekly
08-02-2013, 13:10
One million people vote to ditch their Prime Minister
MARIANO RAJOY, accused of accepting illegal cash payments before he became Spanish Prime Minister, is fighting to save his career.
Nearly one million people have signed an online petition calling for him to step down, amid widespread protests.
It follows the PP (Popular Party) corruption scandal, in which top-ranking party officials were said to have taken “bungs” over a 12-year period.
Opinion polls show that 77% believe he is no longer fit to lead the country, while 54% believe there should be a General Election.
Opposition leader Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba has demanded that Rajoy be grilled in Congress about the allegations.
Former PP deputy Jorge Trias Sagnier and five other former senior officials have already confirmed that party leaders received bungs.
AndSpain’s chief state prosecutor confirms there could be enough evidence to investigate, forcing the PP to conduct an internal audit.
But an indignant Rajoy has pledged to clear his name next week online by publishing his income tax return, and declaration of personal wealth, on the Moncloa Palace website.
The Prime Minister, who has denied the claims as “totally false”, has promised to provide “everything necessary for the truth to be made absolutely clear”.
Among the other politicians accused of taking bribes are current General Secretary Maria Delores Cospedal, Senate President Pio Garcia Escudero and even former Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar.
The money was allegedly taken from a 22-million-euro slush fund, hidden in a Swiss bank account controlled by former party treasurer Luis Barcenas.
Barcenas is said to have kept secret ledgers of money received between 1990 and 2008 from donors, including companies, and these, allegedly, reveal the payments to Rajoy.
The notebooks, published by Spanish newspaper El Pais last weekend, show that the Prime Minister was allegedly paid 25,200 euros each year, between 1999-2008.
Until 2007, Spanish political parties were allowed to receive anonymous donations, but the ledgers were kept from 1990 to 2009.
The PP has threatened to sue those making the allegations, describing the entire business as a smear campaign.
But despite the denials, even Rajoy appeared to indicate there was some truth in the allegations, in a cryptic answer to a journalist’s question at a press conference in Berlin.
“Everything that refers to me, and that appears there, and to some of my fellow party members that appear there, is not right, except for something that the media has published,” he said.
Barcenas, said to have controlled the slush fund, has already stepped down from his role as party treasurer after being implicated in the Gurtel corruption scandal, inValencia.
The case involves the alleged awarding of construction contracts by the regional government, in exchange for cash donations.
Between 2002 and 2004, secret cash payments of 600,000 euros were made to Barcenas in exchange for public contracts for construction firm Constructora Hispanica.
But he put just 114,000 euros through the PP books as political donations. The rest is alleged to have been put into a central pot, which was then distributed by Barcenas and fellow treasurer Alvaro Lapuerta as back-handers to senior PP officials.
A total of 120m euros, paid into the fund by a group of businessmen led by Francisco Correa, is believed to have gone undeclared.
The payment scandal looms large against a backdrop of severe austerity, spending cuts and an unemployment rate of 26% in the country.
It also comes as Spain tries increasingly hard to raise taxes and penalise middle-class earners.
At a meeting of the PP’s Executive Board, Rajoy said he wanted the party “to operate with the utmost transparency, complete thoroughness and absolute formality”.
He added, forcefully: “And that is how it will be. The truth will be made absolutely clear, and we will take every step necessary to ensure that no shadow of doubt remains over this issue.”
Mr Rajoy stressed: ”Never, I repeat, never, have I received or distributed undeclared money, either within this party or elsewhere.
“The Government of Spain has a clear course set and we will not see ourselves diverted.”
The Prime Minister added: “We are on the right path. I am aware that the fruits of our labour are not yet apparent, but they will be because the seeds have been sown.
“They have not been sown haphazardly but rather meticulously, with great effort and great sacrifice.”
Finally, Mariano Rajoy said: “I will continue working to live in a country where evidence and courts are necessary to judge, sentence and condemn.
“The shadow of a hint of a manipulated clue cannot be used to strip any Spaniard of his presumed innocence.
“It simply cannot. If that were the case, we would end up living in an uninhabitable country.”
More... (http://www.canarianweekly.com/rajoy-battles-beat-claims-corruption/)
MARIANO RAJOY, accused of accepting illegal cash payments before he became Spanish Prime Minister, is fighting to save his career.
Nearly one million people have signed an online petition calling for him to step down, amid widespread protests.
It follows the PP (Popular Party) corruption scandal, in which top-ranking party officials were said to have taken “bungs” over a 12-year period.
Opinion polls show that 77% believe he is no longer fit to lead the country, while 54% believe there should be a General Election.
Opposition leader Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba has demanded that Rajoy be grilled in Congress about the allegations.
Former PP deputy Jorge Trias Sagnier and five other former senior officials have already confirmed that party leaders received bungs.
AndSpain’s chief state prosecutor confirms there could be enough evidence to investigate, forcing the PP to conduct an internal audit.
But an indignant Rajoy has pledged to clear his name next week online by publishing his income tax return, and declaration of personal wealth, on the Moncloa Palace website.
The Prime Minister, who has denied the claims as “totally false”, has promised to provide “everything necessary for the truth to be made absolutely clear”.
Among the other politicians accused of taking bribes are current General Secretary Maria Delores Cospedal, Senate President Pio Garcia Escudero and even former Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar.
The money was allegedly taken from a 22-million-euro slush fund, hidden in a Swiss bank account controlled by former party treasurer Luis Barcenas.
Barcenas is said to have kept secret ledgers of money received between 1990 and 2008 from donors, including companies, and these, allegedly, reveal the payments to Rajoy.
The notebooks, published by Spanish newspaper El Pais last weekend, show that the Prime Minister was allegedly paid 25,200 euros each year, between 1999-2008.
Until 2007, Spanish political parties were allowed to receive anonymous donations, but the ledgers were kept from 1990 to 2009.
The PP has threatened to sue those making the allegations, describing the entire business as a smear campaign.
But despite the denials, even Rajoy appeared to indicate there was some truth in the allegations, in a cryptic answer to a journalist’s question at a press conference in Berlin.
“Everything that refers to me, and that appears there, and to some of my fellow party members that appear there, is not right, except for something that the media has published,” he said.
Barcenas, said to have controlled the slush fund, has already stepped down from his role as party treasurer after being implicated in the Gurtel corruption scandal, inValencia.
The case involves the alleged awarding of construction contracts by the regional government, in exchange for cash donations.
Between 2002 and 2004, secret cash payments of 600,000 euros were made to Barcenas in exchange for public contracts for construction firm Constructora Hispanica.
But he put just 114,000 euros through the PP books as political donations. The rest is alleged to have been put into a central pot, which was then distributed by Barcenas and fellow treasurer Alvaro Lapuerta as back-handers to senior PP officials.
A total of 120m euros, paid into the fund by a group of businessmen led by Francisco Correa, is believed to have gone undeclared.
The payment scandal looms large against a backdrop of severe austerity, spending cuts and an unemployment rate of 26% in the country.
It also comes as Spain tries increasingly hard to raise taxes and penalise middle-class earners.
At a meeting of the PP’s Executive Board, Rajoy said he wanted the party “to operate with the utmost transparency, complete thoroughness and absolute formality”.
He added, forcefully: “And that is how it will be. The truth will be made absolutely clear, and we will take every step necessary to ensure that no shadow of doubt remains over this issue.”
Mr Rajoy stressed: ”Never, I repeat, never, have I received or distributed undeclared money, either within this party or elsewhere.
“The Government of Spain has a clear course set and we will not see ourselves diverted.”
The Prime Minister added: “We are on the right path. I am aware that the fruits of our labour are not yet apparent, but they will be because the seeds have been sown.
“They have not been sown haphazardly but rather meticulously, with great effort and great sacrifice.”
Finally, Mariano Rajoy said: “I will continue working to live in a country where evidence and courts are necessary to judge, sentence and condemn.
“The shadow of a hint of a manipulated clue cannot be used to strip any Spaniard of his presumed innocence.
“It simply cannot. If that were the case, we would end up living in an uninhabitable country.”
More... (http://www.canarianweekly.com/rajoy-battles-beat-claims-corruption/)