While the Rajoy government fiddles in its endemic culture of corruption, the people simmer with anger.
By Don Quijones: Since taking office in late 2011, Rajoy’s government has been
embroiled in one sordid political scandal after another. In the latest
episode, the Punica Affair, more than 100 politicians have been arrested
and charged with varying acts of white collar crime, including taking
kick backs from private sector companies.
Payment often came in the form of cash-stuffed envelopes although, as El Confidencial reports,
it could also include completely free-of-charge construction work on a
politicians’ property, luxury holidays, hunting trips and even an
intimate evening or two with a high-class prostitute. Most of the
politicians involved in the scandal are – or at least were – members of
the governing Popular Party. The rest belong – or at least belonged – to
the other partner in Spain’s (until now) two-party system, the
not-really-socialist-at-all party, the PSOE.
The good news is that some of Spain’s corrupt politicians and
business figures are finally seeing the sharp (or at least not entirely
blunt) end of the law. Scores have been arrested and some are even going
down. The bad news is that Rajoy’s scandal-tarnished government of
self.serving mediocrities still stands, albeit more precariously than
ever. In El Pais‘
latest poll of voters’ intentions in next year’s general election, the
Popular Party (PP) was, for the first time in decades, relegated to
third place. Indeed, the two incumbent parties – the PP and PSOE – were
unable to muster 50% of the vote between them.
The most popular party in the poll was Podemos, a stridently
left-wing political movement founded just at the beginning of this year.
In May’s European elections the party picked up five seats; now, six
months later, it is apparently the hottest contender for the spoils in
next year’s general election, picking up 27% of the votes polled – six
percentage points more than PP and one more than PSOE.
Lead by Pablo Iglesias, a firebrand (or as the right-wing media like
to call him “demagogic”) 35-year-old professor of political science,
Podemos has masterfully exploited the general public’s disaffection with
a political establishment that serves no one’s interests but its own –
and, of course, those of the country’s biggest businesses and banks.
The political establishment is quite rightly blamed for stoking and
feeding the country’s biggest ever real estate bubble. Thanks to a
change in the property laws enacted in 1997 by the Aznar government,
local and regional administrations were encouraged to part-finance
themselves through granting authorization for ever larger public and
private construction projects, many of which turned out to be white
elephants (empty toll roads, high-speed train stations planted slap bang
in the middle of nowhere, ghost airports…).
Naturally, cash or other undeclared inducements helped grease the
wheels of the bubble-making machine. As long as the local and regional
governments were taking their cut of the action, property prices were
allowed to reach ludicrous levels that could only be sustained (in the
short term) by getting the country’s saving banks (also largely run by
members or affiliates of the two main political parties) to push
down-payment-free mortgages down the throat of a largely compliant
public.
The bubble popped, the economy tanked, unemployment soared and all of a sudden austerity became the menu du jour
for everyone – everyone except, of course, Spain’s political class and
their private sector paymasters. Given the scale of the two main
parties’ betrayal, it’s perhaps no surprise that many Spanish voters are
determined to take their vote elsewhere, and Podemos has one huge
advantage over its political rivals: almost all of its members are
political virgins and as such are uncorrupted – at least for now!
The fledgling party also has the luxury of being able to espouse
policies and strategies that sharply mirror the demands of a
long-ignored, long-disenfranchised electorate. Those policies include a
redistribution of wealth, the right to a basic income, a cap on
executive salaries, an independent audit of the country’s public debt,
increased transparency of political party funding, more stringent
restrictions on political lobbying, stronger government support for SMEs
and R&D-intensive industries, higher penalties for tax evasion, the
creation of a national bank for investment and the renationalization of
strategic sectors such as telecommunications, utilities and the
country’s formerly public-owned savings banks [Spanish speakers can read
the party's full manifesto by clicking here].
While the Rajoy government fiddles, the country simmers with anger.
Just a few days ago his second-in-command, Maria Dolores Cospedal,
herself accused of myriad financial irregularities, argued that her
party had done all it can (read: nothing) to fight the scourge of
political corruption. As for Rajoy, all he can do is undeftly dodge (as
illustrated last year by the hilarious Bloomberg interview)
uncomfortable questions on his party’s endemic culture of corruption,
while talking up the wonders of an economic recovery that only 12% of
the population now believes in. Once that final bubble of illusion
bursts – which it assuredly will, especially given Europe’s seemingly
unstoppable economic descent – Spain will enter a whole new world of
pain.
By Don Quijones, freelance writer, translator in Barcelona, Spain. Editor at WOLF STREET. Mexico is his country-in-law. Raging Bull-Shit
is his modest attempt to scrub away the lathers of soft soap peddled by
political and business leaders and their loyal mainstream media. Via Wolf Street.
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