Rajoy Takes Stand as First Spain Leader Called in Criminal Trial

by Dramelin 10:00 PM 0 comments

Mariano Rajoy will become the first sitting prime minister of Spain’s democratic era to give evidence in a criminal trial when he testifies Wednesday in a National Court probe into his party’s financing.
Rajoy will take the stand at about 9:30 a.
in the court’s major trial center on the outskirts of Madrid.
Thirty-seven people, including former People’s Party Treasurer Luis Barcenas, are accused of running a bribery ring to help fund party operations.
Barcenas has pleaded innocent.
The prime minister had asked to appear via teleconference, saying he was too busy to attend the courtroom, but the judges insisted he appear in person.
The Barcenas case is the most comprehensive of more than two dozen investigations involving current or former PP officials moving through the courts as Spain comes to terms with the corruption that spread among its elite during the economy boom around the turn of the century.
Former Deputy Prime Minister Rodrigo Rato and the ex-presidents of Madrid and the Balearic Islands are among those already convicted.
“This is part of long story of PP corruption which is preventing the party benefiting from the good performance of the economy,” said Lluis Orriols, a political scientist at Madrid’s Carlos III University.
“The photo of Rajoy appearing in court is very powerful.
” Barcenas has previously accused Rajoy of accepting kickbacks as part of the operation, though he’s softened his line as the trial approached.
The prime minister denies any wrongdoing and is not under investigation.
Struggling in Polls Rajoy is struggling to expand his support even with the economy on track to grow at least 3 percent for a third year in a row, almost twice the euro-zone average.
Unemployment has fallen to its lowest level since 2008.
The PP would get between 133 and 136 seats in the 350-strong parliament if elections were held today, according to a Celeste-tel poll for El Diario website published last week.
That compares with 137 it won in June 2016, enough to make the PP the biggest party and allow Rajoy to lead a minority government.
Wednesday’s case is focusing on the period between 1999 and 2005, leading up to and immediately following Rajoy’s appointment as party leader in 2004.
During that time, Francisco Correa, an events organizer, allegedly created a network of companies to channel kickbacks from firms awarded public contracts by PP officials.
Correa also pleaded innocent.
The questions about the prime minister’s rise to power come as he tries to face down a challenge from Catalonia’s separatist government.
Officials running Spain’s biggest regional economy have pledge a referendum on independence on Oct.
1 -- Rajoy says such a vote would be unconstitutional and it won’t happen.
His court appearance “could help separatists to portray Spain as corrupt and argue that the status quo is far from ideal,” Orriols said.
Smear Campaign Rajoy’s efforts to show himself as the defender of the rule of law were damaged last week when a parliamentary committee concluded that his government had set up a secret unit within the National Police to dig dirt on Catalan Nationalist leaders during his first term from 2011.
Rajoy wasn’t personally named in the report, though former Interior Minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz knew about and approved the plan, lawmakers said.
The purpose of the unit was “to obstruct the investigation of corruption cases affecting the PP,” said the report, which was endorsed by a narrow majority of lawmakers, not including Rajoy’s group.
It was also used “to track, investigate and, eventually, prosecute political adversaries.