Just when I thought it was the socialists who were at the forefront of major league corruption in-your-face, the following comes up: http://tinyurl.com/ba4g226. Sorry, it is in Spanish, but let me summarise for you what is being said in the media. The former treasurer of the Partido Popular gave extra pays to party officials with black money. The not so important people would get 5,000 Euro a month, the bigger fish 10,000, and the VIPs 15,000. This black money apparently came from pay-offs from companies and individuals, I presume to gain favour with the party. This seems to have gone on for 20 years, the time Mr. Bárcenas was the treasurer. It is not yet clear how many people benefited from this practice, but I’m pretty sure it’s worth a few hospitals, schools and percentage points on the measly pensions many elderly spaniards suffer. The only thing the PP can do now is come clean, although I believe everyone shares the suspicion that what follows now is what usually follows in Spain with big corruption scandals like this one: a few months of news, maybe the start of a trial not directly related to the scandal and certainly not involving anyone really important, and then nothing. Spain is now nothing more than a banana republic with a king. The banana republic is a corrupt self-serving oligarchic regime, and the king sits around doing nothing when he’s not killing elephants in Botswana.
The Common Sense Expedition 