Bribes, prostitutes and cocaine. A hundred days before municipal and regional elections in May, and ten months before legislative elections, Spain’s ruling Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) in Madrid is happy to exonerate the “Mediador” affair from publicity.
According to investigators, the “gifts” were paid by several business leaders to a socialist representative, Juan Bernardo Fuentes of the Canary Islands – better known as “Tito Berni”, and Francisco Espinosa, a retired National Guard general, in exchange for facilities receiving public contracts, expediting European subsidy documents, and eliminating fines or other privileges. They have been making headlines in the Spanish media for a week.
The People’s Party (PP, right) and the far-right group Vox have announced their intention to bring a civil case to the courts and have called for the establishment of a parliamentary commission of inquiry, “Restore the Dignity of Parliament”, Appointed PP Chairman Alberto Nuñez Feijoo, who described the case as “Moral Bomb” For PSOEs.
The investigation revealed that Mr. Fuentes hosted several business leaders named in the allegedly corrupt network at the House.and about “Table of contents” At a time when socialists were working on a law against the trafficking and exploitation of human beings aimed at abolishing prostitution, the supply of prostitutes to those involved was being made public.
Aware of the danger of such a scandal on the eve of the election, the PSOE expelled Mr Fuentes and pressured him to give up his seat in parliament on the same day his name appeared among those involved. “When political leaders take actions that do not meet the exemplary standards required by the PSOE, the action is clear: expulsion from the party and withdrawal from mandate”, Head of Government Pedro Sanchez explained. He himself came to power in 2018 after a no-confidence motion against conservative Mariano Rajoy following the PP’s conviction in a corruption scandal. ” I hope other parties do the same”he slipped and fell.
intense political tension
The PSOE spokesman tried to blame the entitlement on its own despicableness, recalling the influence-peddling cases affecting its elected officials or the dubious legacy of Marbella mayor Angeles Muñoz, whose husband and son-in-law have been accused of drug trafficking and money laundering. “The Mediador incident is disgusting and despicable, but it hits an insignificant grassroots representative, and nothing else”, affirm world A Socialist MP who asked not to be named.
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