Kiss And Make-Up: No chance - corruption cases continue

The corruption cases involving leading members of the Unió Mallorquina party continue to astound. There are now two former tourism ministers in the frame - Francesc Buils has been indicted, to add to Miquel Nadal. The former speaker of the parliament and former leader of the Council of Mallorca, Maria Antònia Munar, is now accused of diverting some five million euros of public funds between 2000 and 2007. There are also accusations of payments to party members from public money. The details no longer seem to matter. The scale is all that really counts. And the impression. One not of a party rotten to the core but one riddled with the maggots of decay at its very top: Buils and Nadal were very much Munar's men. They were. The canaries are singing, looking to pass the buck and deflect the accusations elsewhere.

There remains in all this sleaze and in all these allegations a suggestion that the cases are all political. Are they really? For them to be political would require some sort of set-up involving other political parties, the police and the judges. It's a nonsense. Nevertheless, there is an unease with the highly public nature of the way in which evidence is given out and in which the accused are paraded. Jason Moore, in an editorial in "The Bulletin", made a valid point the other day, one with which I agree; in essence, that the process should go ahead with greater dignity. The calls for sentences that come from the prosecutors before the full judicial procedure has been gone through are as unpleasant as they are presumptive of guilt.

This said, the magnitude of the charges, and also those levelled against the former president of the regional government, Jaume Matas (Partido Popular), are such that highly public displays might be said to be necessary. The corruption cases are that serious that they do threaten an undermining of the democratic system. One cannot overstate the significance of what is taking place in Mallorca at present. I have wondered if I have overplayed all this myself in invoking the past - the Franco past. I don't know that I have, but I wouldn't necessarily have expected support for this from ... Maria Antònia Munar. In an interview with the IB3 television station yesterday, she declared her complete innocence and went on to say that "democracy is based on the confidence that people have in the institutions and politicians, and when this confidence is lost a dictator can emerge". She is not wrong, but some might detect a touch of dissembling - allegedly.

So seriously are the cases being taken that the central government's justice ministry has authorised a reinforcement of the anti-corruption investigation unit in the Balearics. Fifty-five prosecutors are on their way to augment its numbers. 55! The Balearics delegate to the central government has had to ask for police reinforcements because so many officers are involved in examining the evidence associated with the different cases. It is a staggering situation.

Among the various accusations being made is one by the judge presiding over the so-called "caso Maquillaje" (the make-up case). He has accused Munar of alleged bribery. There was something rather poignant, if this is the right word, about this accusation. On the day that the judge was saying this, someone left prison. The poignancy was the photo of this person with a beret and sunglasses, travelling on what looked like a bus. Who was this? Luis Roldán. He was once the director-general of the Guardia Civil. He had served half a 31-year sentence for, among other things, bribery.

Yesterday there was another anti-corruption demonstration in Palma organised by the "Plataforma contra la Corrupción". It also had a certain poignancy. They demonstrated in the hope that the current spate of corruption cases might be the last. They can hope. They should remember Roldán. Maybe I - they - do make too much of all this. There's nothing new under a Spanish or Mallorcan sun. Not now and not, in all likelihood, in the future. But maybe the highly public parades of the accused might, just might, stop that future.


QUIZ:
Yesterday: The Wonder Stuff, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpmzS9mjz_I. Today: make-up or make up, noun or phrasal verb; either way, which group kissed and made up?


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.