Five Golden Rings

Well, well, well, what have we got here? 'Tis the season to be merry, 'tis the season for corruption allegations. Hard on the heels of the Matas affair (Matas the ex-president of the Balearics), comes another bombshell. Five leading members of the Unió Mallorquina nationalist party are facing accusations of having "diverted" hundreds of thousands of euros. The case, known as Caso Son Oms, relates to payments allegedly made to two media companies - those hundreds of thousands. More than just five golden rings for the infamous five.

And this five could hardly be more impressive in terms of their prominence in the UM. Heading the list is Maria Antònia Munar, matriarch of the party, its former leader, the former president of the Council of Mallorca and now the president (speaker) of the Balearics parliament. She has recently been hauled up before the beak to answer questions relating to another case. Following her are: the already implicated tourism minister and ex-leader of the party, Miquel Nadal; the current leader of the party, Miquel Flaquer; the former councillor for territory, Bartomeu Vicens and ... and Enviro Man, yes, Miquel Grimalt, the current environment minister in the Balearics government.

All those named held responsibilities in the previous Council administration, presided over by Sra. Munar. They are only accused, but stuff has a habit of sticking, while it doesn't look great if such prominent politicians are being cited. This was a point made by the current Balearics president when Sra. Munar had her previous day in court. She said that it was normal for someone in her position to be asked to give evidence when the case had happened on her patch, as it were. Which is probably fair enough, but Antich (the president) is also right to say that it looks bad. And unfortunately, it does look bad, regardless of whether there is any truth to the accusations or not.

The consistency with which these cases emerge leads one to the conclusion that virtually no project is unsullied. Someone said to me the other day that a number of projects are basically unjustified; there is no real need for them, except as a means of some money being "diverted". And who's doing the diverting?

Oh, and when I said the other day (20 November: Conde Nasty) that the UM, with seven cases of alleged corruption hanging over it, could do better, I was only joking. I hadn't expected that the party might actually be about to boost its rankings.


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - "My Fair Lady", http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrY33J8qUpM. Today's title - I assume you all know where this is from.

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