Rajoy implicated in corruption affair
Spain's conservative ruling party led by Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy remains at the centre of the investigations into the country's biggest ever corruption case. The case involves manipulated financial records, illegal donations from construction companies and bribery. The party has now been accused of obstructing justice by destroying evidence. Spain's press is shocked by the party's reaction to the investigations.
This isn't cooperating with the judiciary
Regardless of the legal verdict the scandal is a disgrace for the party, ABC concludes:
“Once Bárcenas had been dismissed the PP's computer experts reset the hard disks no less than 35 times, scratched them and then threw them away. Criminal offences may or may not have been committed from a legal point of view - but politically and aesthetically the PP's actions were scandalous. The claim that this is just a normal procedure once the user leaves the party headquarters is difficult to maintain. It sounds more like an attempt to destroy evidence to prevent a judge from getting hold of it. Even if the case does end with an acquittal it will remain a dark chapter in the PP's proclaimed history of collaboration with the judiciary in its investigations into whether a slush fund existed.”
Shocking reaction of the conservatives
Spain's head of government Rajoy is cutting a very poor figure in this affair, El Periódico de Catalunya comments irately:
“The court in Madrid has now decided to pass judgement on the party as a legal entity. This is unprecedented. ... But the PP's reaction to the mountain of evidence against it is to accuse the plaintiff's in the Gürtel and Bárcenas corruption cases of being driven by political motives and acting on behalf of the Socialists. This is an implausible reaction. Above all after Rajoy and other PP politicians boasted that they would always cooperate with the law in the fight against corruption.”