Spain in a Sea of Scandals
VALLS-RUSSELL, JANICE
CHALLENGING THE SOCIALISTS Spain in a Sea of SCandals BY JANICE VALLS-RUSSELL MADRID FOR SPAIN'S Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez, this year's Bastille Day celebration provided a welcome break. As...
...That cost Gonzalez' Socialist Party (PSOE) votes in June's European Parliament contest—indeed, it ran 9 points behind the Center-Right Popular Party (PP)—and the damage is likely to mount as magistrates continue their probe...
...In messages to the press, Roldan has threatened to make devastating revelations if caught...
...The corruption, nepotism and unearned wealth have revived memories of General Francisco Franco's regime...
...As if for good measure, in early July Carmen Salanueva, former director of the agency responsible for official publications, was convicted of fraud and influence-peddling...
...Mean-while unemployment was rising and destitute people, many of them elderly, were reduced to begging...
...It seems she arranged to buy printing paper at inflated prices and received kickbacks from suppliers...
...Spaniards recall how they swept Felipe (as the Prime Minister is sometimes called) into office in 1982 largely on his promise to do away with such abuses...
...Mayors across the land have been found guilty of allotting public projects to their pals...
...So it was a shock for Spaniards to leam a few days later of a financial scandal that, on the face of it, appears to involve the UGT...
...the death of a leading Socialist, Carmen Garcia Bloise, at age 57...
...Last February Gonzalez' own faction, known as renovadores, obtained a majority at the Socialistnational congress...
...the buccaneering of Spanish (as well as French) fishing boats...
...In an apparently unrelated development, Luis Roldan, former chief of the national police and a senior PSOE figure, disappeared within a few days of Rubio's arrest...
...In spite of all his domestic troubles, Gonzalez continues to enjoy the support of Catalan and Basque nationalists along with that of his party...
...Some in the Prime Minister's entourage say he is relieved to have a real opposition to deal with at last...
...Unlike the PSOE'sjetsetters—mockingly dubbed the "beautiful people"—UGT head Nicolas Redondo and other senior union members seemed to remain faithful to the Socialist tradition of austere integrity...
...Nevertheless, the PP and the Employers' Federation, eager to put him to the test, are calling for fresh nationwide elections in September...
...As the social divide grew wider, the Socialist Trade Union Federation (UGT) gradually distanced itself from the Gonzalez government and criticized it for focusing more on containing inflation than on creating jobs...
...Polls have shown PP appeal rising as its senior members, some of whom gained prominence under Franco, have been shunted aside...
...For example, the president of the autonomous region of Cantabria, Juan Hormaechea, has been subpoenaed and charged by the magistrate overseeing his case with running his northwestern patch of Spain "like a banana republic...
...Janice Valls-Russell mites about French and Spanish affairs for the NL...
...Now the about-face of the party's left wing has further strengthened his position...
...This is not the time to scare off investors with talk of a major political shift, a Catalan businessman said to me...
...That does not mean he is ready to step down or give up without a fight—although he briefly considered being a candidate to succeed Jacques Delors as head of the European Commission, after Britain's John Major vetoed the first nominee in early July...
...journalists could be seen gambling in casinos or fawning on stockbrokers, fishing for insider tips...
...Spain has not become another Italy, the government insists...
...But the idealism did not last long...
...and it is hard to imagine what more could go wrong for the Prime Minister this summer...
...The loss to the treasury has been estimated at close to $4 million...
...Albero Silla resigned after admitting he had "overlooked" paying taxes on certain investment profits...
...The sight of Spanish soldiers marching alongside men from France, Germany, Belgium, and Luxembourg was a tribute to Gonzalez: He has anchored his country firmly to Europe and transformed its military into a democratic, outward-looking institution...
...Ministers hobnobbed with actresses and pop singers' wives...
...The Prime Minister, it is said, was so impressed by the Oslo negotiations between Israel and the PLO that he asked friends in the Israeli government to help Spain and the ETA work out a peace agreement...
...Gonzalez personally congratulated Aznar on June 12...
...Redondo himself was among the seam's victims...
...Undeniably, the scandals have been a boon for the opposition and its young leader, Jose Maria Aznar...
...The PSOE had lost its majority there in an election held the day of the European balloting...
...His financial adviser, Manuel de la Concha, was charged with the same offenses...
...The boundaries between professional and private interests blurred, as did those between journalism and the political-financial world...
...Other instances of corruption have come to light as well...
...Favor-trading and illicit party financing had already resulted in the PSOE's achieving only a narrow victory in the June 1993 general election...
...With a more united PSOE behind him, and an expected Cabinet reshuffle in the fall, Gonzalez is thought here to be determined to reverse the tide of disfavor before it sinks his government...
...And the fight against the Basque separatist organization ETA has made strange bedfellows: While still police chief, Roldan reportedly arranged to let a French drug Mafia launder money across the Pyrenees in exchange for information on the movements of ETA members...
...In addition, the party's victory in the European Parliament contest suggests Spain may be looking for a change of leadership...
...It thus lost its majority in the Lower House of Parliament, making the Gonzalez administration dependent upon the support of the Catalan and Basque nationalist parties...
...We know how to win and how to lose elections," he told his Socialist followers soon afterward...
...Not yet, counters the Popular Party...
...Luxembourg's Prime Minister, Jacques Santer, has since been elected...
...The Socialist leftists came around in July, though, after the IU refused to support the PSOE in Andalusia's regional assembly...
...Here in Spain, however, his achievements have been tarnished by a series of scandals that erupted in May, involving figures who have held office during his 12-year tenure...
...He had amassed a fortune well beyond the means of a civil servant, and his explanation—that he had successfully invested the savings his father had earned as a taxicab driver—convinced no one, least of all cab drivers...
...Unemployment dipped, too, if only by an eyelash...
...That vote, and the Socialists' even poorer showing this summer, reflect the citizenry's increasing disillusionment...
...The combination of economic prosperity and an artificial political stability—with a strong PSOE facing a divided, ineffectual opposition—fostered an arrogant, fast-living, nouveau-riche atmosphere among the powerful elite...
...De la Concha allegedly also managed a secret bank account for Rubio and engaged in insider trading...
...Job-seekers still represent 24 per cent of the labor force?8 per cent being people actually out of work, the balance being mostly school-leavers and women looking for first jobs...
...The president of Catalonia, Jordi Pujol, accuses them of catastrofismo—roughly, of blowing the country's problems out of proportion...
...We are nearing the end of an era that has lasted much longer than we thought it would," says Jesus de Polanco, managing director of the prisa press group, owner of the Center-Left daily El Pais...
...Add to this the forest fires that have devastated tens of thousands of acres, killing at least 18 people...
...In the wake of May's revelations, the UGT felt obliged to join the Workers' Commissions, its Communist rival, in calling for Gonzalez' resignation...
...The deluge began when Mariano Rubio, a past governor of Spain's central bank and a Gonzalez ally, was arrested on charges of tax fraud and falsifying documents...
...Moreover, he is known to have managed investment portfolios for several members of the Socialist elite, including former Finance Minister Miguel Boyer, and Vicente Albero Silla, who was Agriculture Minister at the time of the arrests...
...Questioned by magistrates, he claimed that the UGT was guilty only of negligence, but in the present climate few outside the unions are inclined to believe him...
...As the guest of French President Francois Mitterrand, he attended the traditional July 14 parade on the Champs Elysees, because Eurocorps troops were participating for the first time...
...A housing cooperative, set up with the active assistance of the labor federation but financed by the modest savings of hundreds of individuals, went bust when the property developer absconded...
...On the Basque front, secret talks between moderate nationalists and the extremist ETA are rumored to be taking place—with Israel as mediator...
...Catalan businessmen, pointing to timid signs of an economic upturn, side with Pujol and Gonzalez...
...The annual inflation rate was 4.7 per cent at the end of June, down from 4.9 per cent for the May-to-May period...
...Left-wing Socialists initially had doubts about relying on Catalan and Basque backing, preferring to deal with the Communist coalition, United Left (IU...
...Following the disappearance Interior Minister Antoni Asuncion, accused by some opposition members of looking the other way, resigned...
Vol. 77 • July 1994 • No. 7
