Spanish PM Rajoy clings to his job
8/1/2013 4:49:16 PM
Spain's prime minister, Mariano Rajoy will not resign. After weeks of holding out against demands that he give some sort of explanation for the corruption and illegal funding scandal that has engulfed his Popular Party (PP), he appeared before parliament today.
Mr Rajoy turned the scandal into an attempt to destabilise Spain itself. The case was damaging the country's image abroad, he said, and threatened to send bond yields soaring again. That would bring further misery to Spaniards as they suffer 27% unemployment and what he admitted was a fragile return towards growth after a long-running double-dip recession. Fanning the flames of scandal by accusing him of responsibility for the funding scandal, he implied, risked incinerating the country itself.
“I made a mistake,” he admitted. That mistake was to have trusted Luis Bárcenas, the man who he himself appointed party treasurer, during the 20 years in which he managed the PP. But he denied illegal party funding or tax avoidance and personal enrichment.
Mr Rajoy then wrapped himself in the red and gold flag of Spain. He implicitly accused anyone who now chose to believe Mr Bárcenas, the self-confessed author of secret accounting ledgers showing systematic cheating by the PP, of a lack of patriotism. He reminded deputies that Spain's judicial system allowed Mr Bárcenas, currently remanded in jail by a judge who worries he might flee the country, to lie as he defends himself from tax fraud and money-laundering accusations after secretly stashing some €40m ($xxm) in Swiss bank accounts. But Mr Rajoy insisted that the man whom he once told to “stay strong”, in a text message, after allegations about the Swiss bank accounts were first revealed, is now an inveterate liar determined to frame the PP. Few Spaniards believe him. Polls show that 82% think the PP leadership knew what was going on.
Mr Rajoy turned the scandal into an attempt to destabilise Spain itself. The case was damaging the country's image abroad, he said, and threatened to send bond yields soaring again. That would bring further misery to Spaniards as they suffer 27% unemployment and what he admitted was a fragile return towards growth after a long-running double-dip recession. Fanning the flames of scandal by accusing him of responsibility for the funding scandal, he implied, risked incinerating the country itself.
“I made a mistake,” he admitted. That mistake was to have trusted Luis Bárcenas, the man who he himself appointed party treasurer, during the 20 years in which he managed the PP. But he denied illegal party funding or tax avoidance and personal enrichment.
Mr Rajoy then wrapped himself in the red and gold flag of Spain. He implicitly accused anyone who now chose to believe Mr Bárcenas, the self-confessed author of secret accounting ledgers showing systematic cheating by the PP, of a lack of patriotism. He reminded deputies that Spain's judicial system allowed Mr Bárcenas, currently remanded in jail by a judge who worries he might flee the country, to lie as he defends himself from tax fraud and money-laundering accusations after secretly stashing some €40m ($xxm) in Swiss bank accounts. But Mr Rajoy insisted that the man whom he once told to “stay strong”, in a text message, after allegations about the Swiss bank accounts were first revealed, is now an inveterate liar determined to frame the PP. Few Spaniards believe him. Polls show that 82% think the PP leadership knew what was going on.