scandal
Papers leaked last week revealed allegedly undeclared payments made to PP leaders including Mariano Rajoy over two decades
04.02.13 - 13:20 -
People protest in Madrid at the weekend. AFP
Documents pertaining to former Partido Popular treasurer Luis Bárcenas have revealed apparent top-up salaries paid out to party leaders between 1990 and 2009.
Published by El País newspaper on Thursday the leaked papers take the form of accounts sheets, showing names alongside amounts. This information would imply that Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy received some 25,200 euros every year for 11 years from a party slush fund controlled by treasurers Álvaro Lapuerta and later Luis Bárcenas.
Other names on the list include past and present party executives such as Rodrigo Rato, Jaime Mayor Oreja, Javier Arenas, Ángel Acebes and Francisco Álvarez Cascos as well as Dolores de Cospedal, the current secretary general.
The papers also show amounts apparently received by the party from business owners, three of them involved in the Gürtel corruption scandal.
In a press conference on Thursday De Cospedal categorically denied the veracity of the papers, saying that there was only one set of Partido Popular accounts and these were “clear and transparent” and were submitted every year to the auditing tribunal.
After an emergency meeting of its National Executive Committee on Saturday Mariano Rajoy said that he had never received or given out undeclared money and that all the allegations are false.
The alleged slush fund hand-outs came to light after the Gürtel corruption investigation revealed last month that Luis Bárcenas had had 22 million euros in Swiss bank accounts.
Protests have taken place this weekend outside PP party headquarters in Madrid and other Spanish cities.
