Spain’s prime minister Rajoy has assured his MPs that most politicians in Spain are not corrupt.
His assurance came the day after his health minister, Ana Mato, had to resign after a judge accused her of benefiting from illegal payments resulting from crimes allegedly committed by her former husband.
Brave Sr Rajoy said: "I care deeply about injustice. I cannot accept that the suspicion of corruption spreads to all Spanish politicians."
Perhaps no one has informed him about all the property owners in Anadalusia who were swindled by corrupt builders in cahoots with local government authorities.
To add substance to his reassurance Mr Rajoy outlined a “powerful arsenal” of steps to tackle corruption that he said all political parties would have to observe, including strict new regulations on financing, transparency and conflicts of interest.
A high court judge in Madrid said he believed Ms Mato, 55, benefitted personally from gifts some years ago as part of the so-called Gurtel scandal. She has, however, not been named as an official suspect.
Judges have been investigating the ‘Gurtel’ network, an alleged kick-back operation in which business people are believed to have paid for flights and trips or made illegal party donations in order to get Popular Party contracts. The scheme is said to have operated for 10 years until 2009.
It is the largest pre-trial investigation in the history of Spain's criminal court, and involves many Popular Party officials and public figures.
Another scandal is the so-called Barcenas affair which involves allegations of a slush fund operated by former PP treasurer Luis Barcenas from which bonus payments were said to have been made to several senior PP figures.
