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Jill Stephenson and Andrew Hook
Spanish prime minister, Mariano Rajoy
While recognising that the tide may have turned in the Scottish economy with the release of the latest figures showing a positive reduction in unemployment, the citizens of our dear country could spare a thought for their Spanish counterparts who are currently experiencing an unprecedented political crisis. As if the economic crisis they were already suffering wasn’t enough. If it’s true that a country gets the government it deserves, the people of Spain must have been very, very naughty in times gone by.
For the last few weeks the nation has been gripped in a fever resulting from daily reports, and I’m not exaggerating when I say daily, of new corruption scandals amongst the political class, and those connected to it. As an outsider living in Spain I find these daily machinations fascinating and depressing in equal measure. It would appear that the people of Spain are growing ever more weary with the situation and recently a million of them signed a petition asking, politely, for Mr Rajoy and his government to quietly leave office, hand in the keys of power and not take anything else as they go out the door.
Every day the news reports reveal another exclusive about a political figure who is alleged to be up to his or her neck in shady deals and dirty money. Politicians at all levels of government – national, regional and local – would appear to have been enjoying kickbacks for many years. Deals made with property companies when the property market was booming seem to have lined a fair few political pockets.
Even the top dogs are not immune, with accusations surrounding the prime minister, suggesting that he has benefited from ‘additional funding’ from unclear sources for over a decade. Senior officials have been quoted as saying that the money could be considered as ‘bonuses’, as though there had been some kind of clandestine political performance-related pay system in operation for the last 10 years. One wonders how such performance might be measured anyway?
Mr Rajoy, as it would appear is his modus operandi, has somewhat shot himself in the foot by responding to questions from journalists by saying: ‘It’s all untrue, except for some things’. It is unlikely that history will see this moment as his finest hour. Meanwhile, he is vowing to tackle corruption by bringing in a new legal framework and calling for financial transparency.
Sadly even the Spanish royal family is caught up in the headlines, with an ongoing investigation into the finances of the king’s son-in-law who is alleged to have funnelled public money away from its designated purpose – an NGO tasked with staging sporting events – to some altogether less worthy destination.
Here in Catalonia we are not immune to the scandals with news that the local PP leader was bugged during a recent lunch meeting in a restaurant in Barcelona. At the meeting the conversation apparently turned to allegations that the son of a former Catalan premier had laundered money, rather a lot of money, through banks in Andorra. The socialists are being blamed for the bug but other reports suggest the PP leader may have bugged herself to share some of the headlines.
The feelings of people I talk to move between disbelief, anger and shame. One person I spoke to this week said that she feels that her government has simply been involved in organised crime. ‘They are taking all the money for themselves,’ she said, ‘while the rest of us have no choice but to pay our taxes and work hard for a living’.
Having said all that, it’s important to remember that democracy in Spain is still in its infancy. It would seem that the political system has yet to wake up to the reality of a 24/7 news cycle where journalists, bloggers and other online commentators are perpetually thirsty for a story. Things that perhaps would not have been worthy of scrutiny in the past are now making the headlines with depressing regularity.
Someone asked me if there had been similar political scandals in the UK. I felt quite inadequate as I couldn’t really remember one that could even touch what’s happening in Spain right now. I did say that a lot of our political scandals seem to be related to sex and my friend shrugged his shoulders and asked why would anyone care about that type of thing? Mmmm. Why indeed?
Having watched many a political scalping in Scotland and the UK for reasons much more minor than what is happening in Spain today, I can only admire the tenacity of Mr Rajoy and his government. They are holding doggedly on to power. They are doing everything they can to stay in power. The media is not co-operating. I can only imagine that Mr Rajoy must have nerves of steel. A lesser mortal would choose to stay in bed rather than wake up to another day of new scandals.
From this distance the political machinations of Scotland seem pretty mundane by comparison. I suspect that is a situation Spanish people might welcome and for which Scottish people might give thanks.
Steve Mallon is originally from Glasgow, is a former teacher and currently lives in Barcelona where is is a consultant, business coach and an occasional writer
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