Today's
allegations of corruption in Spain concern the Health Minister, Ana Mato.
She's said to have received tens of thousands of euros worth of gifts from
companies implicated in an existing corruption investigation. She
says she didn't but we will see.
President
Rajoy today came out denying, if not exactly fighting. He says he'll
make his tax returns public but how this will prove he didn't receive
black money payments not included in them he didn't explain. He also
said the PP party didn't have an account in Switzerland and that its
official books were always cleared by the auditors – both of which
statements fall within the category of True But Irrelevant. More
pertinently, he's denied that he or anyone else received illicit
payments and dismissed the handwritten accounts detailing these as
false. I'm not sure many people believe him and there have been
street demonstrations outside the party HQ in Madrid.
To
be honest, all this has come as a bit of a shock to me. I went along
with the 96% of the Spanish population who were said to believe corruption
was widespread in their country but I'd been prepared to believe this this was confined to regional, provincial and municipal
politicians and that national politicians were pretty clean. I'm not
sure of anything now.
Back
here in Hamburg, it was a revelation to visit the shopping district
today. Not a single shop boarded up. And only the occasional beggar.
What a contrast with Pontevedra these days. Convergence there ain't.
Hamburg
is a wealthy city and it teems with top-end German cars. Well, why
not? If the rest of the world wants to buy your cars, why shouldn't
you? The surprising thing was the identity of the next most popular
car – the Mini. Followed, I'd guess, by the Smart Car.
Finally
. . . Who could not be amused by the story of the (Spanish)
ex-boyfriend of Gina Lollobrigida who, according to her, faked a
marriage to her in Barcelona a few years back, by getting another
(Spanish) woman to stand in for her. Top marks for chutzpah.
No comments:
Post a Comment