In Spain, a sordid affair of corruption weakens the Socialist Party before local elections

Juan Bernardo Fuentes, in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, in Spain, on March 22, 2023. RAMÓN DE LA ROCHA / EFE

Bribes, prostitutes and cocaine. A hundred days before the municipal and regional elections in May, and ten months before the legislative elections, the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE), in power in Madrid, would have gladly dispensed with the revelations of the “Mediador” affair.

According to the investigators, these “gifts” were paid by several business leaders to a socialist deputy, the Canarian Juan Bernardo Fuentes – better known as “Tito Berni”, and to a retired civil guard general, Francisco Espinosa, in exchange for facilities to obtain public contracts, an acceleration of European subsidy files, the cancellation of fines or other privileges. They have been making headlines in the Spanish press for a week.

The People’s Party (PP, right) and the far-right formation Vox have announced their intention to bring a civil action before the courts and have asked for the creation of a parliamentary commission of inquiry, “to restore its dignity to Parliament”. , specified the president of the PP, Alberto Nuñez Feijoo, who described the affair as an “ethical bomb” for the PSOE.

The investigation showed that several business leaders cited in the alleged corruption network were received by Mr. Fuentes within the Congress of Deputies. And the scabrous details of the “catalogues” of prostitutes offered to those involved are made public, just as the Socialists are working on a law against human trafficking and exploitation, aimed at the abolition of prostitution.

Read also: In Spain, the case of oversized trains prompts the resignation of the Secretary of State for Transport and the President of Renfe

Aware of the dangers of such a scandal on the eve of the election, the PSOE expelled Mr Fuentes and pressured him to give up his seat in parliament the same day his name emerged among those involved. “When a political leader commits an action that does not correspond to the criteria of exemplarity required by the PSOE, the action is clear: expulsion from the party and withdrawal from the mandate”, explained the head of government, Pedro Sanchez. He himself came to power in 2018 following a no-confidence motion filed against conservative Mariano Rajoy, prompted by the conviction of the PP in a corruption scandal. “I would like other parties to do the same,” he slipped.

A climate of strong political tension

PSOE spokespersons have tried to send the right back to its own turpitude, recalling the cases of influence peddling affecting its elected officials or the suspicious heritage of the mayor of Marbella, Angeles Muñoz, whose husband and son-in-law are accused of drug trafficking and money laundering. “The Mediador affair is repugnant and pathetic, but it strikes an insignificant grassroots deputy and apart from him, there is nothing else,” a socialist parliamentarian told Le Monde on condition of anonymity.

You have 41.19% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.

Source