MAJOR corruption swoops leading to a string of arrests among the PP party from local council to national government level have sorely hampered negotiations between acting president Mariano Rajoy and other political outfits.
An historic scourge on the right-wing leaders, cases of bribery and backhanders under investigation were already legion before two other rackets were uncovered within days of each other, just a month after Spain's most hung general elections in democratic history.
Leader of centre-liberal independent party Ciudadanos, Albert Rivera, had offered himself as a go-between to resolve the deadlock between the PP and its main rival, the socialists or PSOE – but he now says doing so will be nearly impossible following the latest scandals.
Government agencies Imelsa, which handles financial and business promotion and activities, and Acuamed, the hydraulic management firm for the Mediterranean basin water supply, have both come under scrutiny this week amid suspicions of public works prices being deliberately inflated to allow politicians and companies to split and pocket the difference, bribes taken in exchange for lucrative civil engineering and services contracts, and millions of euros in underground cash-in-hand dealing.
In the Valencia region, 24 PP politicians were arrested, of whom 14 have been released pending further inquiries; ex-agriculture minister and now MEP Miguel Arias Cañete is thought to be embroiled in the Acuamed case, and former economy minister and head of State-owned building society Bankia, Rodrigo Rato, has added yet another investigation to his list which already includes wilful mismanagement of funds whilst heading up the bank, and multi-million tax evasion.
Just a week ago, the three-year-long case involving former PP senator and treasurer Luis Bárcenas' backhander slush-fund took on a new twist when his entire ex-party was warned it could be called up to testify and may be charged.
Rajoy stressed before the elections that he aimed to stamp out corruption, and claimed opposition parties were far from clean in that respect – but the balance of legal action and rackets unearthed has swung sharply and publicly towards the PP in recent years, especially in the past few days.
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