I don't expect everyone who reads this to be interested in Balearics politics. I don't expect everyone to be interested in politics full stop, be it Balearics or otherwise. But these politics, regardless of interest or the right to vote, do affect us. Just as they do anywhere. For those with no more than a casual interest, one suspects that knowledge of local politicians will go no further than those who do have an effect. Biel Barceló can probably therefore be taken to be the politician in the Balearics who is the best known among the current crop. He is best known, where most will be concerned, for the wrong reasons. He is the champion of the tourist tax, he is the maker of holiday rentals legislation. If there is a devil among the local political class, then one need look no further than Biel.
In all truth, I can't say that I have always taken much of an interest. I know when I truly started to. The beginning-point was the same one that started to deliver politicians into the hands of the prosecutors - the anti-corruption prosecutors specifically. "Caso Andratx" emerged in late 2006. What at first appeared to be no more than a tale of everyday municipal corruption assumed a life of its own. One domino, then the next, and no sooner had Eugenio Hidalgo, the mayor of Andratx, been the first domino to fall than far more important names filtered through the murk and the sleaze. And it went to the very top. Even now, Jaume Matas, the one-time president of the Balearics, keeps regular appointments with our learned friends.
It became my lot, therefore, to satisfy a curiosity as to who these people were and why they were. Over the years, very few can, in my view, be considered worthy of having any great attention paid to them. If I don't believe this, then I can hardly expect others to. Balearic politicians are generally uninteresting characters. They exude little or any charisma. They are for the most part anonymous beings lifted onto a stage of small-island politics. Small fishes in a small pond. But it has of course been the very smallness of this pond, with its Mediterranean potential for intrigue, rivalry, vendetta, family ties, loyalties (good and bad), fast and looseness with rules, and corruption that has elevated certain members of the political class above the level of the mundane. Has been and continues to be.
The local citizenry, those with full voting rights, are similarly less than totally interested in these people. The latest survey of politician recognition by the Gadeso Foundation proves the point. Which politicians do the citizens know? President Armengol, yes (seven per cent do not). Biel Barceló, yes. He comes second with 81%. Thereafter the recognition decreases. It is perhaps alarming to note that the minister responsible for the largest budget, Patricia Gómez at health, can muster only 44%, two per cent more than Vicenç Vidal at environment, who has the third highest budget.
One fancies that Barceló is as known as he is for the reasons mentioned above. Tourism-related matters have more impact than others. On small islands where tourism is all, then you would expect this. But I would wager that his recognition owes much to the specifics of policy, such as the tourist tax and the rentals legislation; the latter especially. If it is the case, therefore, that tourism bestows on its ministerial titleholder greater awareness than all other members of the government (bar the president), then there should be a rightful wariness as to who that titleholder is. The caprices and whims of policy - tourism policy - affect millions more than the one million plus citizens of the Balearics. It is the only ministerial position that carries a sense of the international. And Biel is that minister.
There is, though, an additional factor. Who is the one minister in the current cabinet to find him or herself under a potential cloud of corruption? It is Biel. For a further wrong reason he therefore finds his recognition soaring. Daily are the developments. A director from the tourism ministry resigns, and then another one resigns. Ranks are closed, and the president publicly announces her confidence in her beleaguered vice-presidential colleague (although there will be only comparatively little interest in the fact that Biel is also vice-president).
The cycle thus continues, the one I set in motion eleven years ago. Is it the case that these islands actually need some corruption (alleged or proven), even if it is insubstantial when compared with Matas's industrial-scale misdoings? Is it corruption that provides an element of charisma where little otherwise exists? Do small islands need to feed off it, if only in a voyeuristic manner?
Maybe it's better to have low recognition after all. High recognition can be for all the wrong reasons.
Showing posts with label Corruption. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Corruption. Show all posts
Thursday, November 23, 2017
Thursday, March 16, 2017
The Falling Dominoes: Corruption
Doesn't time fly when you're having fun? I suppose it depends on how you define fun. Some of mine has involved corruption. Not that fun is really the word, I guess. Interest perhaps? Curiosity? Fascination?
Time has flown by since November 2006. I was reminded of this during a brief social media exchange the other day. It was the month when it all started. You can put an exact date on it: 27 November 2006. Or was the date two years earlier? In 2004 something very important occurred. The first regional anti-corruption prosecutor in the Balearics was appointed. The one-time attorney-general, Cándido Conde-Pumpido, had set about creating positions of these prosecutors in Spain's regions. There were some regions that needed prosecutors more than others. It may be that 2004 was when the domino effect started. Or at least when the dominoes stood up. Knock one and eventually they all tumble. One by one.
The prosecutor was Juan Carrau. In November 2006 it was he who knocked over the first domino. The name was Eugenio Hidalgo. He was the mayor of Andratx. He's still serving time.
Whenever one considers developments over the past ten years or so, one always goes back to Andratx. But there was something else which happened not long afterwards which drew comparatively little notice but was also significant: there were coordinated raids on lawyers and notaries offices. These, together with Andratx, marked the beginning. A change was in process. The dominoes started to quake and shiver.
Andratx wasn't the first time that the legal system had taken action against corruption. The Soller Tunnel affair of the 1990s brought down the Partido Popular president, Gabriel Cañellas, but the whole thing ended up with acquittals because of the statute of limitations. Andratx was to prove that the judiciary possessed sharper teeth, and when Jaume Matas came under suspicion, soon after losing the election in the spring of 2007, the dominoes were trembling even more.
Not everything that has transpired since Andratx can be traced back to it. But some can be. There was a trail to Matas, and once the prosecution and the investigating judge, José Castro, had sniffed it, they were dogs unprepared to let go of the bone. Palma Arena loomed massively, and by way of various branches from that investigation, the former Duke of Palma (Iñaki Urdangarin) caught the attention of Castro and Pedro Horrach.
The investigation into Palma police corruption was a separate matter, but overlaps were to emerge. José Maria Rodríguez, the now former head of the PP in Palma, was implicated with Andratx. Another strand of the Matas investigations - one still outstanding - was Son Espases. Among various names to have cropped up in respect of the hospital contract investigation is Tolo Cursach.
A great deal has been said and written since Cursach was arrested. There is a great deal to say. One only has to consider the charges. The book is being thrown at him, closely followed by the bookcase. In a spate of soul-searching, questions are being asked. Is Cursach somehow the culmination of all that has preceded him in terms of investigations? How could Cursach have happened? What does Cursach say about Mallorca?
It is miles away from dodgy land deals in Andratx, but there is a sense that it is a culmination, and that is because of the scale. The allegations are of systematic and systemic corruption that goes back decades, which has touched and affected many: systematic because of the organisation, systemic because of entire systems implicated. Cursach starts to become easy to explain when this distinction is drawn.
Alejandro Salas of Transparency International once said that corruption in Spain is "impregnated into different sectors of society". Gabriel Garcias, a law professor at the University of the Balearic Islands, has said that "so long as there is no ethical or moral transformation in society, the law will solve nothing".
This isn't to say that every person in Mallorca is culpable or anything of the sort. The point about society is the existence of a societal mores. Politicians, police, businesspeople are society. In order for corruption to exist and to be perpetuated on a wide scale and for a length of time, there has to be a societal collusion. If there isn't, then the system is incomplete.
In corruption cases such as Palma Arena or Nóos, the effects on society in general have been largely abstract. There hasn't been actual harm in a physical way. Nóos, for instance, didn't involve allegations of homicide or threats. Nóos was not systemic. That these allegations are present in the Cursach and police corruption investigations reveal the magnitude of what is being played out.
The judge and prosecutor are holding society to account. That society which enables abuse of a systemic nature. The final dominoes may just be falling.
Time has flown by since November 2006. I was reminded of this during a brief social media exchange the other day. It was the month when it all started. You can put an exact date on it: 27 November 2006. Or was the date two years earlier? In 2004 something very important occurred. The first regional anti-corruption prosecutor in the Balearics was appointed. The one-time attorney-general, Cándido Conde-Pumpido, had set about creating positions of these prosecutors in Spain's regions. There were some regions that needed prosecutors more than others. It may be that 2004 was when the domino effect started. Or at least when the dominoes stood up. Knock one and eventually they all tumble. One by one.
The prosecutor was Juan Carrau. In November 2006 it was he who knocked over the first domino. The name was Eugenio Hidalgo. He was the mayor of Andratx. He's still serving time.
Whenever one considers developments over the past ten years or so, one always goes back to Andratx. But there was something else which happened not long afterwards which drew comparatively little notice but was also significant: there were coordinated raids on lawyers and notaries offices. These, together with Andratx, marked the beginning. A change was in process. The dominoes started to quake and shiver.
Andratx wasn't the first time that the legal system had taken action against corruption. The Soller Tunnel affair of the 1990s brought down the Partido Popular president, Gabriel Cañellas, but the whole thing ended up with acquittals because of the statute of limitations. Andratx was to prove that the judiciary possessed sharper teeth, and when Jaume Matas came under suspicion, soon after losing the election in the spring of 2007, the dominoes were trembling even more.
Not everything that has transpired since Andratx can be traced back to it. But some can be. There was a trail to Matas, and once the prosecution and the investigating judge, José Castro, had sniffed it, they were dogs unprepared to let go of the bone. Palma Arena loomed massively, and by way of various branches from that investigation, the former Duke of Palma (Iñaki Urdangarin) caught the attention of Castro and Pedro Horrach.
The investigation into Palma police corruption was a separate matter, but overlaps were to emerge. José Maria Rodríguez, the now former head of the PP in Palma, was implicated with Andratx. Another strand of the Matas investigations - one still outstanding - was Son Espases. Among various names to have cropped up in respect of the hospital contract investigation is Tolo Cursach.
A great deal has been said and written since Cursach was arrested. There is a great deal to say. One only has to consider the charges. The book is being thrown at him, closely followed by the bookcase. In a spate of soul-searching, questions are being asked. Is Cursach somehow the culmination of all that has preceded him in terms of investigations? How could Cursach have happened? What does Cursach say about Mallorca?
It is miles away from dodgy land deals in Andratx, but there is a sense that it is a culmination, and that is because of the scale. The allegations are of systematic and systemic corruption that goes back decades, which has touched and affected many: systematic because of the organisation, systemic because of entire systems implicated. Cursach starts to become easy to explain when this distinction is drawn.
Alejandro Salas of Transparency International once said that corruption in Spain is "impregnated into different sectors of society". Gabriel Garcias, a law professor at the University of the Balearic Islands, has said that "so long as there is no ethical or moral transformation in society, the law will solve nothing".
This isn't to say that every person in Mallorca is culpable or anything of the sort. The point about society is the existence of a societal mores. Politicians, police, businesspeople are society. In order for corruption to exist and to be perpetuated on a wide scale and for a length of time, there has to be a societal collusion. If there isn't, then the system is incomplete.
In corruption cases such as Palma Arena or Nóos, the effects on society in general have been largely abstract. There hasn't been actual harm in a physical way. Nóos, for instance, didn't involve allegations of homicide or threats. Nóos was not systemic. That these allegations are present in the Cursach and police corruption investigations reveal the magnitude of what is being played out.
The judge and prosecutor are holding society to account. That society which enables abuse of a systemic nature. The final dominoes may just be falling.
Friday, March 03, 2017
Saluting The Brave: The Cursach Affair
Over two weeks ago there was an article in El Mundo the headline for which was "Rodríguez, the brave". This was not a certain Partido Popular Rodríguez (José María), who is implicated in the Palma police corruption investigations, but a PSOE Rodríguez - Alfonso, the mayor of Calvia.
To get to the essence of that article, the reason for praising Rodríguez for his bravery was because he had shown his willingness to remove a town hall official who was obstructing an investigation by a lower-ranking official. Moreover, Rodríguez was making it clear that Calvia will be ensuring that this investigation proceeds. It is to do with alleged "irregularities", ones that supposedly have existed for years and which Rodríguez's predecessors have preferred to overlook. It was no coincidence, therefore, that on Tuesday the National Police should raid not just Megapark and other establishments but also Calvia town hall. Rodríguez wouldn't have been told of the raid, but had he been, he would have been at the doors waving the police in.
Reaction to the arrest of Tolo Cursach was entirely predictable. I shall not repeat any of it. Whatever my view or the views of others, innocence must nevertheless be presumed. Let's just say that there was a fair amount of schadenfreude being expressed.
That same article concluded that Rodríguez has the means at his disposal to see through what he has said he will do. Despite experience that suggests otherwise (politicians who have lacked bravery), things in Mallorca could now change because of honest politicians. Rodríguez would be one.
There are other honest and brave men and women. Numbered among them are Judge Manuel Penalva, anti-corruption prosecutor Miguel Ángel Subirán, and Palma's councillor for public safety, Angelica Pastor, who has been subjected to threats and been the subject of some derision, which now appears to have been carefully orchestrated. Other honest and brave people are not publicly known, but they include witnesses and local police whistleblowers, the latter who must have endured periods of Kafka-esque purgatory, not knowing who to trust. There will be others who have felt likewise, including politicians and members of the state police forces.
From the legal ranks, we are more familiar with Judge Castro and prosecutor Pedro Horrach because of their pursuit of Matas and Urdangarin. Regardless of what one might think about the outcome of the Nóos trial, the integrity of Castro and Horrach should not be questioned. They disagreed where Princess Cristina was concerned. Legal opinion is entitled to differ. But the circumstances of their investigations were far from being the same to the ones confronting Penalva and Subirán. Neither Castro nor Horrach had any need to request the carrying of a gun. Penalva and Subirán have felt the need.
What was it Pedro Horrach said about intimidation, about being followed and about insults directed at his family? His investigations, however, were not in the same league as those of Penalva and Subirán. What started out as a relatively innocuous investigation into allegations of the fixing of police exam results in Palma has acquired a life of extraordinary significance. Matas, Urdangarin, Munar and their ilk are as nothing compared to what has being unfolding and will continue to unfold. Thieving public funds seems almost amateurish when put up against a web that embraces politicians, businesspeople and police and against what that web was allegedly conspiring to do. It was a web in which trust was impossible to ascertain except for the trust between perpetrators. Until, that is, Penalva and Subirán allowed trust to breathe.
What are we witnessing? The destruction once and for all of self-interested webs of deceit, threats and criminality? That's doubtful. But we are witnessing significant steps being taken in a positive direction. Judges and others are no longer cowed and deterred from investigating and for doing so with determination.
Horrach also spoke about pressures being intensified in small regions such as the Balearics. It was an understandable observation. Small regions, small populations create small pockets of power, mutually dependent and mutually corrupt or potentially corrupt. Small regions do not take kindly to those who snoop into affairs which have been crafted over decades. What does one make of the revelation that certain establishments have not been inspected for forty years? It's easy to make something of it. That's how things are.
Increasingly, though, they are not. There are not just the investigations into Palma police and connections to politicians and business. There are also those involving Calvia, about which little has been heard recently. But one senses that there will come a moment when a tidal wave will be unleashed, the culmination of the various investigations. When it is, Mallorca won't have witnessed anything like it.
We wait for it to happen, confident in the honest and the brave.
To get to the essence of that article, the reason for praising Rodríguez for his bravery was because he had shown his willingness to remove a town hall official who was obstructing an investigation by a lower-ranking official. Moreover, Rodríguez was making it clear that Calvia will be ensuring that this investigation proceeds. It is to do with alleged "irregularities", ones that supposedly have existed for years and which Rodríguez's predecessors have preferred to overlook. It was no coincidence, therefore, that on Tuesday the National Police should raid not just Megapark and other establishments but also Calvia town hall. Rodríguez wouldn't have been told of the raid, but had he been, he would have been at the doors waving the police in.
Reaction to the arrest of Tolo Cursach was entirely predictable. I shall not repeat any of it. Whatever my view or the views of others, innocence must nevertheless be presumed. Let's just say that there was a fair amount of schadenfreude being expressed.
That same article concluded that Rodríguez has the means at his disposal to see through what he has said he will do. Despite experience that suggests otherwise (politicians who have lacked bravery), things in Mallorca could now change because of honest politicians. Rodríguez would be one.
There are other honest and brave men and women. Numbered among them are Judge Manuel Penalva, anti-corruption prosecutor Miguel Ángel Subirán, and Palma's councillor for public safety, Angelica Pastor, who has been subjected to threats and been the subject of some derision, which now appears to have been carefully orchestrated. Other honest and brave people are not publicly known, but they include witnesses and local police whistleblowers, the latter who must have endured periods of Kafka-esque purgatory, not knowing who to trust. There will be others who have felt likewise, including politicians and members of the state police forces.
From the legal ranks, we are more familiar with Judge Castro and prosecutor Pedro Horrach because of their pursuit of Matas and Urdangarin. Regardless of what one might think about the outcome of the Nóos trial, the integrity of Castro and Horrach should not be questioned. They disagreed where Princess Cristina was concerned. Legal opinion is entitled to differ. But the circumstances of their investigations were far from being the same to the ones confronting Penalva and Subirán. Neither Castro nor Horrach had any need to request the carrying of a gun. Penalva and Subirán have felt the need.
What was it Pedro Horrach said about intimidation, about being followed and about insults directed at his family? His investigations, however, were not in the same league as those of Penalva and Subirán. What started out as a relatively innocuous investigation into allegations of the fixing of police exam results in Palma has acquired a life of extraordinary significance. Matas, Urdangarin, Munar and their ilk are as nothing compared to what has being unfolding and will continue to unfold. Thieving public funds seems almost amateurish when put up against a web that embraces politicians, businesspeople and police and against what that web was allegedly conspiring to do. It was a web in which trust was impossible to ascertain except for the trust between perpetrators. Until, that is, Penalva and Subirán allowed trust to breathe.
What are we witnessing? The destruction once and for all of self-interested webs of deceit, threats and criminality? That's doubtful. But we are witnessing significant steps being taken in a positive direction. Judges and others are no longer cowed and deterred from investigating and for doing so with determination.
Horrach also spoke about pressures being intensified in small regions such as the Balearics. It was an understandable observation. Small regions, small populations create small pockets of power, mutually dependent and mutually corrupt or potentially corrupt. Small regions do not take kindly to those who snoop into affairs which have been crafted over decades. What does one make of the revelation that certain establishments have not been inspected for forty years? It's easy to make something of it. That's how things are.
Increasingly, though, they are not. There are not just the investigations into Palma police and connections to politicians and business. There are also those involving Calvia, about which little has been heard recently. But one senses that there will come a moment when a tidal wave will be unleashed, the culmination of the various investigations. When it is, Mallorca won't have witnessed anything like it.
We wait for it to happen, confident in the honest and the brave.
Friday, September 16, 2016
Matas And The Scandals That Won't Go Away
So, Jaume Matas may escape a further term in prison if he spills the beans. He would know that he potentially faces a far longer stretch than the nine months he spent in Segovia prison for peddling influence in arranging illegal payments to a journalistic cheerleader. The Son Espases Hospital affair eclipses even the Palma Arena case in terms of the money that was involved in the project. The cost of the contract is almost incidental, however. The links to alleged illegal funding of the Partido Popular are most certainly not.
Reaction from politicians with parties other than the PP (from which little or nothing is being heard) ranges from the phlegmatic to the apoplectic. While all this reaction suggests that Matas shouldn't avoid doing time, there is an acceptance that Matas holds a key - possibly the key - to revealing the secrets of this funding. These politicians won't know exactly what Matas knows. They will be capable of hazarding shrewd guesses, but the knowledge resides with the justice system and the anti-corruption prosecution service in particular.
While Matas was in prison, he appeared by videoconference link at a hearing into Son Espases. This was the bizarre occasion when his head was bandaged. He apparently had an ear infirmity and was therefore unable to hear the questions being put to him. Before he left prison, he was visited by the chief anti-corruption prosecutor, Pedro Horrach. It was said at the time that he exercised his right not to say anything. It now appears that things were rather different and that Matas was all ears. The origin of a deal to spill the beans was during that meeting with Horrach.
Why is Son Espases so important, and important enough for the national anti-corruption prosecution service to back the regional service and so Horrach's deal? It has everything to do with funding of the PP and with work on a remodelling of its headquarters building in the calle Génova in Madrid. The allegation is that the award of the contract for the construction of Son Espases was rigged in favour of the company OHL, the president of which is Juan Miguel Villar Mir, a long-ago minister of finance (in the period immediately after Franco's death) and the recipient of a marquis title from the former king in 2011.
The charge is that it was Matas who rigged the award. In the end, OHL didn't get the contract. This was after suspicions about the contract appeared in the press. Matas intervened and the award ultimately went to the rival consortium. But Matas, it is said, didn't act independently. He was under instruction from the PP nationally.
A famous envelope containing instructions that the tender board was to follow has been referred to often during investigations. The then health minister, Aina Castillo, has testified that she was given this envelope - without knowing its contents - to be passed on. Matas was the one who gave her the envelope, but he - the allegation is - was given it by the formal national treasurer of the PP, Alvaro Lapuerta. Matas, it is understood, is prepared to state this in court.
OHL and Villar Mir come into the story because Luis Barcenas, another former treasurer, has testified that Villar Mir was a major funder of the PP. He gave the party a significant sum - 300,000 euros - for its 2011 election campaign, but he has also come under investigation for payments in cash amounting to two million euros. An implication is that he paid for work at the headquarters.
Barcenas is also crucial to this whole affair. The infamous "B" accounts which he supposedly operated - undeclared income and payments - have been the subject of investigation by the national high court. A judge, Pablo Ruz, concluded eighteen months ago that the PP had used this "B" system between 1990 and 2008. Both Barcenas and Lapuerta were cited by the judge. Moreover, the judge said that according to Barcenas's accounts, Villar Mir had delivered over half a million euros between 2004 and 2008.
Whatever the rights or wrongs of Matas avoiding prison, the revelation that he might do comes at a bad time for the PP. While Matas was involved in corruption from several years go - it is now nine years since his second and final period as Balearic president ended - there are more up-to-date scandals surrounding the party, not least in Valencia, where Rita Barberá, the former mayor of Valencia, is facing allegations of money laundering that relate to the time just before the elections in spring 2015.
The additional backdrop of course is the ongoing uncertainty with the national government. A reason for this uncertainty has been the rise of Podemos and Ciudadanos, both of them taking firm aim against corruption. The PP's moral authority for government takes a constant battering. Matas, and what he might have to say, diminishes that authority ever more.
Reaction from politicians with parties other than the PP (from which little or nothing is being heard) ranges from the phlegmatic to the apoplectic. While all this reaction suggests that Matas shouldn't avoid doing time, there is an acceptance that Matas holds a key - possibly the key - to revealing the secrets of this funding. These politicians won't know exactly what Matas knows. They will be capable of hazarding shrewd guesses, but the knowledge resides with the justice system and the anti-corruption prosecution service in particular.
While Matas was in prison, he appeared by videoconference link at a hearing into Son Espases. This was the bizarre occasion when his head was bandaged. He apparently had an ear infirmity and was therefore unable to hear the questions being put to him. Before he left prison, he was visited by the chief anti-corruption prosecutor, Pedro Horrach. It was said at the time that he exercised his right not to say anything. It now appears that things were rather different and that Matas was all ears. The origin of a deal to spill the beans was during that meeting with Horrach.
Why is Son Espases so important, and important enough for the national anti-corruption prosecution service to back the regional service and so Horrach's deal? It has everything to do with funding of the PP and with work on a remodelling of its headquarters building in the calle Génova in Madrid. The allegation is that the award of the contract for the construction of Son Espases was rigged in favour of the company OHL, the president of which is Juan Miguel Villar Mir, a long-ago minister of finance (in the period immediately after Franco's death) and the recipient of a marquis title from the former king in 2011.
The charge is that it was Matas who rigged the award. In the end, OHL didn't get the contract. This was after suspicions about the contract appeared in the press. Matas intervened and the award ultimately went to the rival consortium. But Matas, it is said, didn't act independently. He was under instruction from the PP nationally.
A famous envelope containing instructions that the tender board was to follow has been referred to often during investigations. The then health minister, Aina Castillo, has testified that she was given this envelope - without knowing its contents - to be passed on. Matas was the one who gave her the envelope, but he - the allegation is - was given it by the formal national treasurer of the PP, Alvaro Lapuerta. Matas, it is understood, is prepared to state this in court.
OHL and Villar Mir come into the story because Luis Barcenas, another former treasurer, has testified that Villar Mir was a major funder of the PP. He gave the party a significant sum - 300,000 euros - for its 2011 election campaign, but he has also come under investigation for payments in cash amounting to two million euros. An implication is that he paid for work at the headquarters.
Barcenas is also crucial to this whole affair. The infamous "B" accounts which he supposedly operated - undeclared income and payments - have been the subject of investigation by the national high court. A judge, Pablo Ruz, concluded eighteen months ago that the PP had used this "B" system between 1990 and 2008. Both Barcenas and Lapuerta were cited by the judge. Moreover, the judge said that according to Barcenas's accounts, Villar Mir had delivered over half a million euros between 2004 and 2008.
Whatever the rights or wrongs of Matas avoiding prison, the revelation that he might do comes at a bad time for the PP. While Matas was involved in corruption from several years go - it is now nine years since his second and final period as Balearic president ended - there are more up-to-date scandals surrounding the party, not least in Valencia, where Rita Barberá, the former mayor of Valencia, is facing allegations of money laundering that relate to the time just before the elections in spring 2015.
The additional backdrop of course is the ongoing uncertainty with the national government. A reason for this uncertainty has been the rise of Podemos and Ciudadanos, both of them taking firm aim against corruption. The PP's moral authority for government takes a constant battering. Matas, and what he might have to say, diminishes that authority ever more.
Monday, August 29, 2016
"Sick Note" And The Whorehouse
If you're a politician who has more or less got everything, what else might you wish for? A fine yacht with which you can serenely sail around the shores of a summertime Mallorca? Possibly, but it's unlikely that your ego (and indeed money) will stretch to the obscene ostentation to be found floating on the calm waters of Palma bay. Better to not even try to compete. How about instead having your own police force? While among the fantasy flotilla will be those capable of boasting that they have their own armies, a personal brigade of cops would still do nicely in pandering to your need for self-actualisation.
José María Rodríguez denies having conspired to create a police force within a police force, one to be allied to the Partido Popular with the aim of benefiting certain business people and friends of the party to the disadvantage of rival business people and political enemies. Never, he insists, did he organise a policing system to "monitor" anyone, including judges and prosecutors. One of these prosecutors, Miguel Ángel Subiran asked him outright if he had. "Never ever."
José María has done a great deal of denying in his time. The legal status of "imputado" is a peculiar one that stops short of actually being charged. Suspected but no more. Many a politician has found him or herself "imputado", often to then have this "archived" by a court that has not found evidence to proceed to the next stage of formally charging and trial. Generally, this happens only the once. With José María, he's been making a bit of a habit of it. Had he, for instance, once phoned the then mayor of Andratx and given a tip-off that the cops were coming (he was Balearic interior minister at the time)? No, he had not, the judge was told. There were records of phone calls in the days before the cops arrived. Could have been about anything. The weather, for example.
José María also denies ever having been to an "alternative club" (the nice way of saying a whorehouse). "It disgusts me," he says. Stories that have emerged of the investigation into police corruption which include references to "old" men at sex parties arranged by friendly business people disgust everyone else.
The judge has issued a restraining order. The reason? To prevent José María getting at witnesses or others. He cannot, for instance, go within 300 metres of local police facilities. What happens if he does? Is there a José María warning system that sounds an alarm if he is 299 metres away?
Restraining orders were the order of the week. Cops were being restrained as well. Two senior ones in Palma and that good old boy in Magalluf, the ex-chief of police from Calvia, José Antonio Navarro, of whom a great deal could be said but which is perhaps best left for the time being.
Because José Antonio was on the point of starting work again, the judge decided it was time to slap the restraining order on him. He can't go near Calvia police or the town hall. On the point of starting work again? Where had he been? On sick leave. And seemingly so ever since he was released having spent 40 days banged up when he was arrested a couple of years ago. How does that all work? If there's a compliant doctor it can work easily enough, it would appear. The judge in the police corruption investigation wants to take action the doctor who signed off several Palma cops - all under suspicion - without even having seen them: he was going on medical reports from the prison.
Had there not been a restraining order or the subsequent suspension from duty, what might "Sick Note" José Antonio have been doing on his return after the prolonged absence? A spot of community policing perhaps? Likewise, what were the two former chiefs of police in Palma, both also faced with restraining orders and now suspended, doing? Innocent until and all that, but they don't appear to have been on sick leave, unlike the one before both of them who was.
This sordid affair, a corruption investigation more damaging than any of those into mere pilfering of public funds, throws up all manner of weirdness. It was revealed last week that a year ago there had been a phone call to the 112 emergency line from the San Fernando (Sant Ferran) police HQ which was complaining about the noise from an event that was taking place some two kilometres away at a club on the Paseo Marítimo.
This was for the Ella lesbian festival. In attendance, among others, were the mayor of Palma, José Hila, and tourism minister Biel Barceló. The call, and later ones from a mobile, were suspected to have come from an inspector named Capó, one of the police officers in Palma who is "imputado" in the corruption investigation. He denied in court having made the call (calls).
Returning to José María, it might be recalled that he once took action against Pilar Costa, now the spokesperson for the Balearic government, for having called him a "capo", which has a different meaning to "capó" when there is an accent. The latter means bonnet or hood of a car. Hood, however, might also be applicable to "capo" without an accent - a mafia boss. Judge Penalva, the investigating judge, who like the prosecutor Subiran has been given permission to carry a gun, described José María last month as the "architect in the shadows" of a corrupt organisation, an organisation the judge has also referred to as a criminal organisation.
Denial is everything.
José María Rodríguez denies having conspired to create a police force within a police force, one to be allied to the Partido Popular with the aim of benefiting certain business people and friends of the party to the disadvantage of rival business people and political enemies. Never, he insists, did he organise a policing system to "monitor" anyone, including judges and prosecutors. One of these prosecutors, Miguel Ángel Subiran asked him outright if he had. "Never ever."
José María has done a great deal of denying in his time. The legal status of "imputado" is a peculiar one that stops short of actually being charged. Suspected but no more. Many a politician has found him or herself "imputado", often to then have this "archived" by a court that has not found evidence to proceed to the next stage of formally charging and trial. Generally, this happens only the once. With José María, he's been making a bit of a habit of it. Had he, for instance, once phoned the then mayor of Andratx and given a tip-off that the cops were coming (he was Balearic interior minister at the time)? No, he had not, the judge was told. There were records of phone calls in the days before the cops arrived. Could have been about anything. The weather, for example.
José María also denies ever having been to an "alternative club" (the nice way of saying a whorehouse). "It disgusts me," he says. Stories that have emerged of the investigation into police corruption which include references to "old" men at sex parties arranged by friendly business people disgust everyone else.
The judge has issued a restraining order. The reason? To prevent José María getting at witnesses or others. He cannot, for instance, go within 300 metres of local police facilities. What happens if he does? Is there a José María warning system that sounds an alarm if he is 299 metres away?
Restraining orders were the order of the week. Cops were being restrained as well. Two senior ones in Palma and that good old boy in Magalluf, the ex-chief of police from Calvia, José Antonio Navarro, of whom a great deal could be said but which is perhaps best left for the time being.
Because José Antonio was on the point of starting work again, the judge decided it was time to slap the restraining order on him. He can't go near Calvia police or the town hall. On the point of starting work again? Where had he been? On sick leave. And seemingly so ever since he was released having spent 40 days banged up when he was arrested a couple of years ago. How does that all work? If there's a compliant doctor it can work easily enough, it would appear. The judge in the police corruption investigation wants to take action the doctor who signed off several Palma cops - all under suspicion - without even having seen them: he was going on medical reports from the prison.
Had there not been a restraining order or the subsequent suspension from duty, what might "Sick Note" José Antonio have been doing on his return after the prolonged absence? A spot of community policing perhaps? Likewise, what were the two former chiefs of police in Palma, both also faced with restraining orders and now suspended, doing? Innocent until and all that, but they don't appear to have been on sick leave, unlike the one before both of them who was.
This sordid affair, a corruption investigation more damaging than any of those into mere pilfering of public funds, throws up all manner of weirdness. It was revealed last week that a year ago there had been a phone call to the 112 emergency line from the San Fernando (Sant Ferran) police HQ which was complaining about the noise from an event that was taking place some two kilometres away at a club on the Paseo Marítimo.
This was for the Ella lesbian festival. In attendance, among others, were the mayor of Palma, José Hila, and tourism minister Biel Barceló. The call, and later ones from a mobile, were suspected to have come from an inspector named Capó, one of the police officers in Palma who is "imputado" in the corruption investigation. He denied in court having made the call (calls).
Returning to José María, it might be recalled that he once took action against Pilar Costa, now the spokesperson for the Balearic government, for having called him a "capo", which has a different meaning to "capó" when there is an accent. The latter means bonnet or hood of a car. Hood, however, might also be applicable to "capo" without an accent - a mafia boss. Judge Penalva, the investigating judge, who like the prosecutor Subiran has been given permission to carry a gun, described José María last month as the "architect in the shadows" of a corrupt organisation, an organisation the judge has also referred to as a criminal organisation.
Denial is everything.
Thursday, August 25, 2016
Police Failure And Failing The Police
When is a policeman not a policeman? The answer is when a judge has slapped a restraining order on him entering police facilities. This is the situation as it applies to three (former) senior police officers - Palma's Joan Mut and Antonio Morey and Calvia's José Antonio Navarro. The judge investigating police corruption allegations - Manuel Penalva - has issued orders against the three. In the case of Mut, the restraining order also prevents him going within 300 metres of the "honest" cop who blew the whistle on him. Neither Mut nor Morey, furthermore, can go near the offices of Palma's councillor for public safety.
The cases of these three officers are not necessarily linked. There have been suggestions that alleged police corruption centred on Palma's and Calvia's nightlife districts do have some links, but no evidence has been revealed to indicate collusion. Only suggestions. This is, nonetheless, all part of the investigation that has been taking months and which shows little sign of being resolved in the short term, thus continuing to damage both forces.
The circumstances differ. Where Navarro is concerned, he was arrested and held in custody for some forty days and charged with corruption. The allegations centre on favours shown to certain businesses in Magalluf and harassment of rival businesses. He was released in October 2014 and has been replaced as head of Calvia's police force.
Mut faces charges of malfeasance and coercion. He was taped by another officer, the "honest" one, Antonio Ramis. That recording included an admission of altering evidence but also one of having done so under pressure from political superiors. He was eventually dismissed by the current town hall administration for "disobedience". He was succeeded by Morey who, a few months into his post, launched an astonishing attack on the judge, the anti-corruption prosecutor and the councillor for public safety, Angelica Pastor. While he appeared to offer a defence of certain officers who had been charged, he also brought into question the investigation, implying political motivations, and indeed the competence of officials, such as Pastor. His position was obviously untenable.
The cases go beyond allegations against police officers. Politicians are involved as well. Pastor's predecessor, Guillem Navarro, has been implicated, as have the former deputy mayor, Alvaro Gijón, and the president of the Partido Popular in Palma, José María Rodríguez. The latter is scheduled to appear before Judge Penalva tomorrow. Of evidence against him that has been leaking out are statements from members of the elite GAP (preventive action) unit in Palma which allege that he was instrumental in drafting in officers from Manacor who were to form a unit dedicated to the PP.
The charges against police officers in Palma - currently in custody or at liberty - include some extremely serious ones. Against the backdrop of arrests and the Penalva/anti-corruption prosecutor investigation, the town hall is remodelling the police force, just as it is being overhauled in Calvia. The belief is that restructuring and strengthened lines of reporting will prevent the types of allegations that have occurred from being repeated. They may well do, but in terms of practical application on the ground, how well are the police forces performing? There are complaints in Magalluf and Playa de Palma about a continuation of ineffective policing. Is restructuring merely political window-dressing that doesn't help the police because of lack of resources?
The political dimension cannot be ignored, whether it is the competence of political officials or their own corrupt practices (allegedly). In the case of Joan Mut, he himself took over from Antonio Vera, who was forced to resign because of involvement in the rigging of police promotion exams. (This was what in fact started the whole police corruption ball rolling.) While Mut does face charges, what does one make of his suggestion of there having been pressure from political superiors? Should there be some sympathy, if this were proved to be the case? No, you might say, he should have resigned. But a resignation has to be approved by political superiors.
There have unquestionably been major police failures in both Palma and Calvia. That these may have involved only a relatively limited number of officers does not eradicate feelings of a lack of confidence. The time that the investigations are dragging on do not help either. Where Calvia is concerned, we only now hear of Navarro's suspension. Are the police being failed, therefore, by a slow-moving judicial process and by politicians both past and present? Calvia (and Palma) have made repeated statements about improvements to forces, and yet the complaints persist, though in Calvia's defence, it should be noted that criticisms from the PP opposition have the distinct flavour of pot calling the kettle black. Above all, though, there is the suggestion of political involvement in police corruption. If so, were the police failed by politicians? Who were the instigators? Judge Penalva, albeit slowly, is finding out.
The cases of these three officers are not necessarily linked. There have been suggestions that alleged police corruption centred on Palma's and Calvia's nightlife districts do have some links, but no evidence has been revealed to indicate collusion. Only suggestions. This is, nonetheless, all part of the investigation that has been taking months and which shows little sign of being resolved in the short term, thus continuing to damage both forces.
The circumstances differ. Where Navarro is concerned, he was arrested and held in custody for some forty days and charged with corruption. The allegations centre on favours shown to certain businesses in Magalluf and harassment of rival businesses. He was released in October 2014 and has been replaced as head of Calvia's police force.
Mut faces charges of malfeasance and coercion. He was taped by another officer, the "honest" one, Antonio Ramis. That recording included an admission of altering evidence but also one of having done so under pressure from political superiors. He was eventually dismissed by the current town hall administration for "disobedience". He was succeeded by Morey who, a few months into his post, launched an astonishing attack on the judge, the anti-corruption prosecutor and the councillor for public safety, Angelica Pastor. While he appeared to offer a defence of certain officers who had been charged, he also brought into question the investigation, implying political motivations, and indeed the competence of officials, such as Pastor. His position was obviously untenable.
The cases go beyond allegations against police officers. Politicians are involved as well. Pastor's predecessor, Guillem Navarro, has been implicated, as have the former deputy mayor, Alvaro Gijón, and the president of the Partido Popular in Palma, José María Rodríguez. The latter is scheduled to appear before Judge Penalva tomorrow. Of evidence against him that has been leaking out are statements from members of the elite GAP (preventive action) unit in Palma which allege that he was instrumental in drafting in officers from Manacor who were to form a unit dedicated to the PP.
The charges against police officers in Palma - currently in custody or at liberty - include some extremely serious ones. Against the backdrop of arrests and the Penalva/anti-corruption prosecutor investigation, the town hall is remodelling the police force, just as it is being overhauled in Calvia. The belief is that restructuring and strengthened lines of reporting will prevent the types of allegations that have occurred from being repeated. They may well do, but in terms of practical application on the ground, how well are the police forces performing? There are complaints in Magalluf and Playa de Palma about a continuation of ineffective policing. Is restructuring merely political window-dressing that doesn't help the police because of lack of resources?
The political dimension cannot be ignored, whether it is the competence of political officials or their own corrupt practices (allegedly). In the case of Joan Mut, he himself took over from Antonio Vera, who was forced to resign because of involvement in the rigging of police promotion exams. (This was what in fact started the whole police corruption ball rolling.) While Mut does face charges, what does one make of his suggestion of there having been pressure from political superiors? Should there be some sympathy, if this were proved to be the case? No, you might say, he should have resigned. But a resignation has to be approved by political superiors.
There have unquestionably been major police failures in both Palma and Calvia. That these may have involved only a relatively limited number of officers does not eradicate feelings of a lack of confidence. The time that the investigations are dragging on do not help either. Where Calvia is concerned, we only now hear of Navarro's suspension. Are the police being failed, therefore, by a slow-moving judicial process and by politicians both past and present? Calvia (and Palma) have made repeated statements about improvements to forces, and yet the complaints persist, though in Calvia's defence, it should be noted that criticisms from the PP opposition have the distinct flavour of pot calling the kettle black. Above all, though, there is the suggestion of political involvement in police corruption. If so, were the police failed by politicians? Who were the instigators? Judge Penalva, albeit slowly, is finding out.
Sunday, July 03, 2016
The Sordid Affairs Of Palma's Police
Machiavellianism refers to the use of cunning and duplicity in politics or affairs of state. It is nowadays an overused word that betrays its specific roots in sixteenth century Italy. It can apply to pretty much any political intrigue, manoeuvering and manipulation.
It is only a hypothesis - let me make that clear - but when José María Rodríguez was forced to resign in July 2012 as the national government delegate to the Balearics, one did wonder at the possible application of the M-word. Rodríguez had been implicated in part of one of the massive corruption investigations - Gürtel - that is even now still rumbling on. The news had leaked out. Rodríguez defended himself in the media, wondering who had been responsible for the leak.
The then PP government of José Ramón Bauzá thus lost one of the party's most senior figures. But was the government really that bothered? This is why one mentions the M-word. It had always seemed as though Rodríguez had been an appointment to satisfy a party faction (mainly his own). It had also seemed odd. Rodríguez, though cleared, featured in the "caso Andratx" from 2006 that was to see the former Andratx mayor, Eugenio Hidalgo, go to prison and which caused the domino effect of investigations into ex-Balearic president, Jaume Matas, and ultimately Princess Cristina.
It was the phone call that Rodríguez made to Hidalgo - he was then the regional interior minister - which had raised suspicions. And it was these that placed a question mark over his appointment: the delegate is responsible for police matters in the Balearics. Was it to be the case that the first opportunity which presented itself would be used to get rid of him? This was an administration - Bauzá's - which made much of its intentions to be "clean" and to not have anyone tainted by corruption. Generally speaking, and he received too little credit in this regard, Bauzá was successful. But there had been that business with the phone call. Put it this way, Rodríguez going probably suited Bauzá.
The resignation did not mean that Rodríguez fell back into the political shadows. Quite the contrary. There he was, moving the pieces to ensure that Mateo Isern's last days as PP mayor of Palma were all but impossible and that Isern did not stand again. Rodríguez is the president of the PP in the city. He once sued over being described as a "capo", a word that refers to a Mafia boss.
The investigation into corruption by local police in Palma has long threatened to name names among senior politicians. It now is. The investigating judge, Juan Manuel Penalva, claims that Rodríguez was the "architect in the shadows". So he was in the shadows but being active. Penalva says that this was the shadowiness of a "criminal organisation".
Witness statements allege, among other things, that elements of the police were used by Rodríguez to "control the movements" of other politicians, notably Isern. That Rodríguez held regular meetings at a bar owned by one of the police officers implicated in the corruption affair. Those in attendance included officers currently in custody as well as other politicians, such as the former deputy mayor of Palma, Alvaro Gijón. That certain businesses were favoured - the name Cursach has come up in this regard (BCM in Magalluf plus Mega Park in Arenal, among others). A rival business owner has stated that Tolo Cursach himself was the "La Paca" of the night, a reference to the matriarch of one of the most notorious drugs' gangs operating out of Palma's Son Banya.
That there were sexual favours - flatly denied by Rodríguez. One "alternative" club in Arenal is said to have been only open at times for the exclusive use by people in "public office". Mayors, police chiefs and politicians - old ones aged 60 or 70 - are said to have attended this club. They paid for nothing, including the girls.
The reporting of the police corruption scandal and investigation has been one of unremitting sleaze, but there has only been limited reporting, given its mainly secret nature. One should stress that there are as yet only allegations, but the judge seems convinced. If they were to be proven, they would point to a despicable web. The Nóos trial of Princess Cristina, her husband and others has nothing on all this. There may be questions about how the justice system has functioned with regard to Nóos, but various accused, including Matas, have accepted their responsibilities. The justice system is being tested to a far greater degree by the Palma police affair. It has to get it right.
It is only a hypothesis - let me make that clear - but when José María Rodríguez was forced to resign in July 2012 as the national government delegate to the Balearics, one did wonder at the possible application of the M-word. Rodríguez had been implicated in part of one of the massive corruption investigations - Gürtel - that is even now still rumbling on. The news had leaked out. Rodríguez defended himself in the media, wondering who had been responsible for the leak.
The then PP government of José Ramón Bauzá thus lost one of the party's most senior figures. But was the government really that bothered? This is why one mentions the M-word. It had always seemed as though Rodríguez had been an appointment to satisfy a party faction (mainly his own). It had also seemed odd. Rodríguez, though cleared, featured in the "caso Andratx" from 2006 that was to see the former Andratx mayor, Eugenio Hidalgo, go to prison and which caused the domino effect of investigations into ex-Balearic president, Jaume Matas, and ultimately Princess Cristina.
It was the phone call that Rodríguez made to Hidalgo - he was then the regional interior minister - which had raised suspicions. And it was these that placed a question mark over his appointment: the delegate is responsible for police matters in the Balearics. Was it to be the case that the first opportunity which presented itself would be used to get rid of him? This was an administration - Bauzá's - which made much of its intentions to be "clean" and to not have anyone tainted by corruption. Generally speaking, and he received too little credit in this regard, Bauzá was successful. But there had been that business with the phone call. Put it this way, Rodríguez going probably suited Bauzá.
The resignation did not mean that Rodríguez fell back into the political shadows. Quite the contrary. There he was, moving the pieces to ensure that Mateo Isern's last days as PP mayor of Palma were all but impossible and that Isern did not stand again. Rodríguez is the president of the PP in the city. He once sued over being described as a "capo", a word that refers to a Mafia boss.
The investigation into corruption by local police in Palma has long threatened to name names among senior politicians. It now is. The investigating judge, Juan Manuel Penalva, claims that Rodríguez was the "architect in the shadows". So he was in the shadows but being active. Penalva says that this was the shadowiness of a "criminal organisation".
Witness statements allege, among other things, that elements of the police were used by Rodríguez to "control the movements" of other politicians, notably Isern. That Rodríguez held regular meetings at a bar owned by one of the police officers implicated in the corruption affair. Those in attendance included officers currently in custody as well as other politicians, such as the former deputy mayor of Palma, Alvaro Gijón. That certain businesses were favoured - the name Cursach has come up in this regard (BCM in Magalluf plus Mega Park in Arenal, among others). A rival business owner has stated that Tolo Cursach himself was the "La Paca" of the night, a reference to the matriarch of one of the most notorious drugs' gangs operating out of Palma's Son Banya.
That there were sexual favours - flatly denied by Rodríguez. One "alternative" club in Arenal is said to have been only open at times for the exclusive use by people in "public office". Mayors, police chiefs and politicians - old ones aged 60 or 70 - are said to have attended this club. They paid for nothing, including the girls.
The reporting of the police corruption scandal and investigation has been one of unremitting sleaze, but there has only been limited reporting, given its mainly secret nature. One should stress that there are as yet only allegations, but the judge seems convinced. If they were to be proven, they would point to a despicable web. The Nóos trial of Princess Cristina, her husband and others has nothing on all this. There may be questions about how the justice system has functioned with regard to Nóos, but various accused, including Matas, have accepted their responsibilities. The justice system is being tested to a far greater degree by the Palma police affair. It has to get it right.
Tuesday, June 14, 2016
The Route Of All Corruption
Maria Dolores Cospedal is the national general secretary of the Partido Popular. Last week she took a pop at tourism policies and attitudes of the Balearic government, in which there is no Partido Popular participation. It, she said, had declared tourism public enemy number one. Tourism minister Barceló responded angrily. Irresponsible. Outrage. He insisted that she retract her statement. She didn't.
Cospedal, though even-handed in levelling her accusation at both governing parties (PSOE and Barceló's Més) as well as its parliamentary supporter, Podemos, would probably have had Més and Podemos more in mind than PSOE. These two parties, now united with the United Left in having formed an electoral pact for the 26 June election, are perhaps perceived as being somewhat less than wholeheartedly supportive of tourism. The perception, however, is more applicable to Podemos than Més. Barceló and his party may want change that brings about greater distribution of the wealth that tourism generates, but they are not agitators in the way that Podemos is in respect of, for instance, the hoteliers.
Anyway, this is something of the context for what might appear to fly in the face of what Cospedal had to say. Més, Podemos and their United Left allies were the other day promoting a tourism "route", one in Palma and one also that probably wouldn't have curried favour with Ms. Cospedal.
They like a route in Mallorca. There are routes for walking, for wine, for tapas. You name it, there is a route for it, and it is one designed with tourists in mind, though in the case of the particular route that was being promoted one would doubt if it has attracted too many of the new supply of high purchasing-power northern Europeans currently boosting Palma's boutique hotels to record levels of occupancy.
Since March there has been a route in Palma known as the "Via Corrupta". It was the idea of two journalists and an actor, and it has the backing of the Balearic journalists union. Each Saturday thirty people can embark upon this route. It starts at 10am by the former headquarters of the defunct (brought down by its corruption) Unió Mallorquina (UM) party and ends by the courts in Via Alemania. The route that was taken last Saturday attracted some notable politicians. Més, Podemos, the United Left as well as one PSOE representative and the Congress candidate for the Soberania per a les Illes (sovereignty for the islands) grouping all took part.
One trusts that each of these participants paid the twelve euros fee for the two-and-a-half-hour trek: there shouldn't be any suggestion of favouritism when it comes to a corruption route. They would have passed by, among other places, the headquarters of the PP and PSOE as well as the "palacete" of ex-president Jaume Matas. This is now his ex-palacete, it having been sold to a Frenchman for 2.5 million euros, 865,000 of which (corresponding to what Matas paid for it in 2004) have been deposited with the court as a means of getting Matas a reduction in the sentence that has been called for at the Nóos trial.
The politicians of the left taking part on Saturday clearly had an aim in mind: publicising corruption as a factor in the election. Though Podemos and its allies show no sign of losing support - polls for the Balearics and nationally suggest gains rather than losses - one wonders if corruption is as significant an issue with the electorate as it was. Voters may be more enticed with promises of better employment prospects and of a more equitable society, while in Mallorca there haven't been any major scandals for quite some time. The cases in the courts and under investigation relate to times past and to the days of Matas and of the UM. The recent focus on corruption has been more on the local police scandals, though these might yet find some PP figures being cited.
It doesn't harm, though, to keep corruption firmly on the boil as an election issue, which is therefore what happened on Saturday. The route, let's be blunt, isn't really about tourism, and even if it were, one would question if it would have much of an uptake. This said, there is a branch of tourism which falls under the general umbrella description of dark tourism, of which Civil War routes are an aspect (one wouldn't rule out there being one in Mallorca, given that the law on exhumations has been approved). Corruption might be said to fall within this category, but it is an abstract concept as opposed to a physical one. Hence, in order to give it tangibility, buildings become the attractions on Palma's corruption route. In tourism terms, it is more of a cultural route, and that is exactly what it is. Corruption as part of culture, now to be eradicated. Ms. Cospedal might take note.
Cospedal, though even-handed in levelling her accusation at both governing parties (PSOE and Barceló's Més) as well as its parliamentary supporter, Podemos, would probably have had Més and Podemos more in mind than PSOE. These two parties, now united with the United Left in having formed an electoral pact for the 26 June election, are perhaps perceived as being somewhat less than wholeheartedly supportive of tourism. The perception, however, is more applicable to Podemos than Més. Barceló and his party may want change that brings about greater distribution of the wealth that tourism generates, but they are not agitators in the way that Podemos is in respect of, for instance, the hoteliers.
Anyway, this is something of the context for what might appear to fly in the face of what Cospedal had to say. Més, Podemos and their United Left allies were the other day promoting a tourism "route", one in Palma and one also that probably wouldn't have curried favour with Ms. Cospedal.
They like a route in Mallorca. There are routes for walking, for wine, for tapas. You name it, there is a route for it, and it is one designed with tourists in mind, though in the case of the particular route that was being promoted one would doubt if it has attracted too many of the new supply of high purchasing-power northern Europeans currently boosting Palma's boutique hotels to record levels of occupancy.
Since March there has been a route in Palma known as the "Via Corrupta". It was the idea of two journalists and an actor, and it has the backing of the Balearic journalists union. Each Saturday thirty people can embark upon this route. It starts at 10am by the former headquarters of the defunct (brought down by its corruption) Unió Mallorquina (UM) party and ends by the courts in Via Alemania. The route that was taken last Saturday attracted some notable politicians. Més, Podemos, the United Left as well as one PSOE representative and the Congress candidate for the Soberania per a les Illes (sovereignty for the islands) grouping all took part.
One trusts that each of these participants paid the twelve euros fee for the two-and-a-half-hour trek: there shouldn't be any suggestion of favouritism when it comes to a corruption route. They would have passed by, among other places, the headquarters of the PP and PSOE as well as the "palacete" of ex-president Jaume Matas. This is now his ex-palacete, it having been sold to a Frenchman for 2.5 million euros, 865,000 of which (corresponding to what Matas paid for it in 2004) have been deposited with the court as a means of getting Matas a reduction in the sentence that has been called for at the Nóos trial.
The politicians of the left taking part on Saturday clearly had an aim in mind: publicising corruption as a factor in the election. Though Podemos and its allies show no sign of losing support - polls for the Balearics and nationally suggest gains rather than losses - one wonders if corruption is as significant an issue with the electorate as it was. Voters may be more enticed with promises of better employment prospects and of a more equitable society, while in Mallorca there haven't been any major scandals for quite some time. The cases in the courts and under investigation relate to times past and to the days of Matas and of the UM. The recent focus on corruption has been more on the local police scandals, though these might yet find some PP figures being cited.
It doesn't harm, though, to keep corruption firmly on the boil as an election issue, which is therefore what happened on Saturday. The route, let's be blunt, isn't really about tourism, and even if it were, one would question if it would have much of an uptake. This said, there is a branch of tourism which falls under the general umbrella description of dark tourism, of which Civil War routes are an aspect (one wouldn't rule out there being one in Mallorca, given that the law on exhumations has been approved). Corruption might be said to fall within this category, but it is an abstract concept as opposed to a physical one. Hence, in order to give it tangibility, buildings become the attractions on Palma's corruption route. In tourism terms, it is more of a cultural route, and that is exactly what it is. Corruption as part of culture, now to be eradicated. Ms. Cospedal might take note.
Thursday, April 14, 2016
The Conde Affair: Business corruption
The Panama papers continue to supply sensational reading. Spain's society - politics, royalty, business, the arts, sports - is implicated. The names provide a who's who of the county's VIP establishment: Jóse Manuel Soria, the acting industry, energy and tourism minister; Pilar de Borbón, the King's aunt; Oleguer Pujol, son of Jordi, the former president of Catalonia; Francisco and Juan José Franco, great grandsons of the dictator; Pedro Almodóvar, film director; Lionel Messi, footballer.
Last week, when the leak was becoming a tidal wave, someone was invited onto Spanish television to discuss tax havens. He said that demagogues claim that anyone with a company registered in a tax haven is a "common criminal". There is a great deal of ignorance, he went on. These companies are audited and their taxes are paid. It was "outrageous" to condemn someone just for having a company in countries with tax advantages superior to others. He also suggested that it was "ridiculous" that Spain did not have its own tax haven. He ventured that it could be the Canaries.
A few days later, the person who had said all this was arrested. He is Mario Conde, businessman, politician and an ex-con who now - if perhaps only temporarily - finds himself once more behind bars. Conde is not cited in the Panama papers, but his arrest, coinciding as it does with the leaks, has merely served to crank up the level of outrage. Conde might believe that it is outrageous to attack those who seek advantages in tax havens, but it is far from only demagogues who have been drawing their conclusions. The outrage is great, its timing possibly crucial. The whiff of another type of corruption could yet influence the interminable goings-on with forming a new government or a second election.
Spain's society, given its love affair with football, would probably be unmoved by mention of Messi, who has after all already had his brushes with the tax man. Members of the arts world might likewise be looked upon sympathetically. Politicians and businesspeople, however, are different. And into the roll of business dishonour that there already is comes Conde. Again.
In 1997, he was originally sentenced to six years in prison. In 2001, he was sentenced to fourteen years. The following year, the Supreme Court upped this to twenty years. He went to jail but was released in 2008.
At the heart of this was the so-called "caso Banesto". This erupted in 1993. It was to do with a web of corporate corruption at the bank. Its president was Mario Conde. The actual amount that Conde and others were said to have embezzled from Banesto varies according to reports, but the figure of 26 million euros (its equivalent in pesetas at the time) is common. And his arrest centres on an anti-corruption prosecution investigation that he had been involved in repatriating to Spain more than 13 million euros.
This amount, so it is claimed, had been coming back to Spain from overseas accounts, in particular ones in Switzerland and London, in small amounts - some 3,000 euros at a time - since 1999. Seemingly, it was a very much larger sum, 600,000 euros, that alerted interest. This was a transfer from Switzerland to La Caixa Bank in 2014. It was the bank itself which, in effect, blew the whistle as it had queried the legitimacy of the transfer. A judge at the Spanish High Court, Santiago Pedraz, is now investigating a total of 15 people, including various Conde family members.
Conde always protested his innocence over the Banesto affair. It even found its way to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. There again, Conde had a record of having influential friends. They included, at the time when the Bank of Spain had to intervene with Banesto, the prime minister, Felipe González, and leader of the opposition, José María Aznar. There was also Adolfo Suárez, the man who led Spain's transition to democracy.
Judge Pedraz and the prosecution service are looking into the network of 40 companies that the Conde family had established. It is this web of businesses, plus the offshore element, that has echoes not just of the Panama papers but also the Nóos affair.
Conde is one in that roll of business dishonour. Others include Rodrigo Rato, ex-minister, ex-IMF, ex-banker; Gerardo Díaz Ferrán, ex-president of the Spanish equivalent of the CBI, co-founder of the giant Grupo Marsans; Ángel de Cabo, Díaz Ferrán's Mr. Fix-It, who headed what now seems the mysterious acquisition of the Hotetur chain (Alcudia's Bellevue and all). There are others.
The Conde affair, this Conde Nasty, just makes the stench more malodorous. It fans the flames of the fire that Podemos, among others, has started, one that has engulfed a society previously only too willingly apathetic in shrugging a collective shoulder and saying that's Spain. There's outrage all right.
Last week, when the leak was becoming a tidal wave, someone was invited onto Spanish television to discuss tax havens. He said that demagogues claim that anyone with a company registered in a tax haven is a "common criminal". There is a great deal of ignorance, he went on. These companies are audited and their taxes are paid. It was "outrageous" to condemn someone just for having a company in countries with tax advantages superior to others. He also suggested that it was "ridiculous" that Spain did not have its own tax haven. He ventured that it could be the Canaries.
A few days later, the person who had said all this was arrested. He is Mario Conde, businessman, politician and an ex-con who now - if perhaps only temporarily - finds himself once more behind bars. Conde is not cited in the Panama papers, but his arrest, coinciding as it does with the leaks, has merely served to crank up the level of outrage. Conde might believe that it is outrageous to attack those who seek advantages in tax havens, but it is far from only demagogues who have been drawing their conclusions. The outrage is great, its timing possibly crucial. The whiff of another type of corruption could yet influence the interminable goings-on with forming a new government or a second election.
Spain's society, given its love affair with football, would probably be unmoved by mention of Messi, who has after all already had his brushes with the tax man. Members of the arts world might likewise be looked upon sympathetically. Politicians and businesspeople, however, are different. And into the roll of business dishonour that there already is comes Conde. Again.
In 1997, he was originally sentenced to six years in prison. In 2001, he was sentenced to fourteen years. The following year, the Supreme Court upped this to twenty years. He went to jail but was released in 2008.
At the heart of this was the so-called "caso Banesto". This erupted in 1993. It was to do with a web of corporate corruption at the bank. Its president was Mario Conde. The actual amount that Conde and others were said to have embezzled from Banesto varies according to reports, but the figure of 26 million euros (its equivalent in pesetas at the time) is common. And his arrest centres on an anti-corruption prosecution investigation that he had been involved in repatriating to Spain more than 13 million euros.
This amount, so it is claimed, had been coming back to Spain from overseas accounts, in particular ones in Switzerland and London, in small amounts - some 3,000 euros at a time - since 1999. Seemingly, it was a very much larger sum, 600,000 euros, that alerted interest. This was a transfer from Switzerland to La Caixa Bank in 2014. It was the bank itself which, in effect, blew the whistle as it had queried the legitimacy of the transfer. A judge at the Spanish High Court, Santiago Pedraz, is now investigating a total of 15 people, including various Conde family members.
Conde always protested his innocence over the Banesto affair. It even found its way to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. There again, Conde had a record of having influential friends. They included, at the time when the Bank of Spain had to intervene with Banesto, the prime minister, Felipe González, and leader of the opposition, José María Aznar. There was also Adolfo Suárez, the man who led Spain's transition to democracy.
Judge Pedraz and the prosecution service are looking into the network of 40 companies that the Conde family had established. It is this web of businesses, plus the offshore element, that has echoes not just of the Panama papers but also the Nóos affair.
Conde is one in that roll of business dishonour. Others include Rodrigo Rato, ex-minister, ex-IMF, ex-banker; Gerardo Díaz Ferrán, ex-president of the Spanish equivalent of the CBI, co-founder of the giant Grupo Marsans; Ángel de Cabo, Díaz Ferrán's Mr. Fix-It, who headed what now seems the mysterious acquisition of the Hotetur chain (Alcudia's Bellevue and all). There are others.
The Conde affair, this Conde Nasty, just makes the stench more malodorous. It fans the flames of the fire that Podemos, among others, has started, one that has engulfed a society previously only too willingly apathetic in shrugging a collective shoulder and saying that's Spain. There's outrage all right.
Thursday, March 31, 2016
Corruption, But It's Our Corruption
The foreign (British) media is all over Mallorca like a rash again. For once this isn't a rash of acute misbehaviour with a dash of herpes and its transmission embedded for all time on social networks. This is a good rash, if there can be such a thing. One that's oozing and gushing eruptions of stardom - Mallorca is the star - rather than the evacuations of the sensationalist superficiality of poisoned skin. Mallorca is the star because the media (some of it) affirms this. Or at least La Fortaleza, an ice-cream in Soller and a restaurant in Deya have attained stardom. It is fortunate that editing should choose to identify locations with subtitles, albeit generically (Mallorca as opposed to, say, Formentor). Useful also that Roper should say that he will soon be back in Mallorca sipping thirty-year-old Scotch. (Not so, Mr. Roper.) His palace will return to the abnormal normality of vast wealth out of the reach of the regular hoi polloi, save for the four days a year when it can be admitted to admire the lawns but not take photos. A star indeed and almost as distant as stars (heavenly ones, rather than those on film).
While Mallorca's star is waxing, there is always someone seeking its waning. From the same media collective comes the stare of an iris and the pressing of keys of a Jonathan Pine spoiler style. Is this coincidental or a determined counterpoint to the love blossoming courtesy of "The Night Manager"? The BBC (James Badcock) has alerted its website readers to the "corruption clean-up" in Majorca (and it is interesting to note that the BBC maintains the J Majorca)*.
Reading this, I felt vaguely defensive. I also took issue. Since when has Majorca had a deputy mayor? Jesus Jurado (Podemos) is a vice-president of the Council of Mallorca. That's that cleared up. Then there are Cristina and Iñaki not daring to use the Marivent as their base during the trial. For the record, the palace is used twice a year. More importantly, Cristina is not entitled to use it anyway. When the old king abdicated, she ceased to be a member of the Royal Family: nothing to do with the trial, just the way that royal protocol would have it - her sister also lost her status. Moreover, does anyone seriously think that the King and the Royal Household would have allowed her and Iñaki anywhere near the Marivent when the foreign media (not only British) is all over the trial like a separate rash?
The defensiveness arose because this was primarily, as the "corruption clean-up" headline words suggested, about Mallorca's corruption cases. It's not that there's an issue with foreign media rummaging around in the island's soiled linen. Just a question - why now? Why now list the roll of dishonour stretching as long and as far back as the Soller Tunnel and coming more up to date with Matas and Iñaki? Was there anyone in the world unaware that the King's sister had briefly appeared before the Palma beakery?
So, the article tells us that a couple of dozen Partido Popular and Unió Mallorquina members are either in or have been in the slammer for corruption. And the point is? It's nothing new. Indeed, so old is it that the Matas investigations date back to late 2007 (earlier, if one accepts that "caso Andratx" in 2006 was the trigger for the whole domino effect that eventually knocked over Matas). Judge Castro first took a keen interest in Nóos and Iñaki as long ago as 2010.
It needs to be pointed out that nothing new or significant of a corrupt nature has emerged in Mallorca in the recent past. With one potentially major exception, which the article ignored. There could well yet be politicians named and embroiled in the police corruption affair. Otherwise, the likely candidates for filling the courtrooms in the future are linked to the ongoing investigations surrounding Sr. Matas. The PP HQ funding and Son Espases (which might even prove to the daddy of them all) were both Matas family affairs.
The "clean-up" referred to seems to be one driven by the deputy mayor of Majorca (sic) and colleagues in Podemos. That was an implication drawn from the article. While there's no denying the Podemos zeal in this regard, it is convenient to overlook what happened under Bauzá. He should be given some credit for having sought to change the PP and its ethos, even if it wasn't entirely successful. (There are one or two still knocking around; no names mentioned.)
The clean-up is underway and was so under Bauzá. It will move forward with the creation of the Anti-Corruption Office - so long as this doesn't become a dobbers' charter. The past we know about. Yes, it exists in the present of the trials, but it's our corruption. It's being dealt with.
*http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35864527
Index for March 2016
Blai Bonet - 28 March 2016
Brexit and attitudes towards expats - 3 March 2016
Camping San Pedro - 23 March 2016
Car parking and beaches - 30 March 2016
Corruption - 31 March 2016
Education pact - 10 March 2016
Esperança Camps - 27 March 2016
Fijo discontinuo - 15 March 2016
Germans, tourist tax and sewage - 11 March 2016
Holiday rentals - 5 March 2016, 12 March 2016
Investiture debate - 4 March 2016, 6 March 2016
Josep Truyol Otero, film pioneer - 21 March 2016
Mallorca tourism model - 24 March 2016
Medical faculty in Mallorca - 2 March 2016
Miquel Ensenyat and German right-wing - 20 March 2016
Puerto Pollensa pedestrianisation - 26 March 2016
Renewable energy in Mallorca - 16 March 2016
Royal texts - 13 March 2016
Senior officials' appointments - 1 March 2016
Slingshot - 14 March 2016
Spain's government - 8 March 2016
Tourism statistics - 22 March 2016
Tourist tax - 9 March 2016, 19 March 2016, 25 March 2016, 29 March 2016
Tramuntana mountains' marketing - 17 March 2016, 18 March 2016
Woolworth in Palma - 7 March 2016
While Mallorca's star is waxing, there is always someone seeking its waning. From the same media collective comes the stare of an iris and the pressing of keys of a Jonathan Pine spoiler style. Is this coincidental or a determined counterpoint to the love blossoming courtesy of "The Night Manager"? The BBC (James Badcock) has alerted its website readers to the "corruption clean-up" in Majorca (and it is interesting to note that the BBC maintains the J Majorca)*.
Reading this, I felt vaguely defensive. I also took issue. Since when has Majorca had a deputy mayor? Jesus Jurado (Podemos) is a vice-president of the Council of Mallorca. That's that cleared up. Then there are Cristina and Iñaki not daring to use the Marivent as their base during the trial. For the record, the palace is used twice a year. More importantly, Cristina is not entitled to use it anyway. When the old king abdicated, she ceased to be a member of the Royal Family: nothing to do with the trial, just the way that royal protocol would have it - her sister also lost her status. Moreover, does anyone seriously think that the King and the Royal Household would have allowed her and Iñaki anywhere near the Marivent when the foreign media (not only British) is all over the trial like a separate rash?
The defensiveness arose because this was primarily, as the "corruption clean-up" headline words suggested, about Mallorca's corruption cases. It's not that there's an issue with foreign media rummaging around in the island's soiled linen. Just a question - why now? Why now list the roll of dishonour stretching as long and as far back as the Soller Tunnel and coming more up to date with Matas and Iñaki? Was there anyone in the world unaware that the King's sister had briefly appeared before the Palma beakery?
So, the article tells us that a couple of dozen Partido Popular and Unió Mallorquina members are either in or have been in the slammer for corruption. And the point is? It's nothing new. Indeed, so old is it that the Matas investigations date back to late 2007 (earlier, if one accepts that "caso Andratx" in 2006 was the trigger for the whole domino effect that eventually knocked over Matas). Judge Castro first took a keen interest in Nóos and Iñaki as long ago as 2010.
It needs to be pointed out that nothing new or significant of a corrupt nature has emerged in Mallorca in the recent past. With one potentially major exception, which the article ignored. There could well yet be politicians named and embroiled in the police corruption affair. Otherwise, the likely candidates for filling the courtrooms in the future are linked to the ongoing investigations surrounding Sr. Matas. The PP HQ funding and Son Espases (which might even prove to the daddy of them all) were both Matas family affairs.
The "clean-up" referred to seems to be one driven by the deputy mayor of Majorca (sic) and colleagues in Podemos. That was an implication drawn from the article. While there's no denying the Podemos zeal in this regard, it is convenient to overlook what happened under Bauzá. He should be given some credit for having sought to change the PP and its ethos, even if it wasn't entirely successful. (There are one or two still knocking around; no names mentioned.)
The clean-up is underway and was so under Bauzá. It will move forward with the creation of the Anti-Corruption Office - so long as this doesn't become a dobbers' charter. The past we know about. Yes, it exists in the present of the trials, but it's our corruption. It's being dealt with.
*http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35864527
Index for March 2016
Blai Bonet - 28 March 2016
Brexit and attitudes towards expats - 3 March 2016
Camping San Pedro - 23 March 2016
Car parking and beaches - 30 March 2016
Corruption - 31 March 2016
Education pact - 10 March 2016
Esperança Camps - 27 March 2016
Fijo discontinuo - 15 March 2016
Germans, tourist tax and sewage - 11 March 2016
Holiday rentals - 5 March 2016, 12 March 2016
Investiture debate - 4 March 2016, 6 March 2016
Josep Truyol Otero, film pioneer - 21 March 2016
Mallorca tourism model - 24 March 2016
Medical faculty in Mallorca - 2 March 2016
Miquel Ensenyat and German right-wing - 20 March 2016
Puerto Pollensa pedestrianisation - 26 March 2016
Renewable energy in Mallorca - 16 March 2016
Royal texts - 13 March 2016
Senior officials' appointments - 1 March 2016
Slingshot - 14 March 2016
Spain's government - 8 March 2016
Tourism statistics - 22 March 2016
Tourist tax - 9 March 2016, 19 March 2016, 25 March 2016, 29 March 2016
Tramuntana mountains' marketing - 17 March 2016, 18 March 2016
Woolworth in Palma - 7 March 2016
Thursday, February 25, 2016
Look In The Mirror: Corruption trials
Is there a point at which sympathy replaces contempt and when one questions the need for prolonging the agony? She has been unwell, we know. Perhaps these public appearances - ones in court - are for public consumption and are designed to elicit sympathy. Her reputation destroyed, her dealings dissected and vilified by court and media, her life seemingly destroyed. Why continue with applying the pain?
Maria Munar, the one-time princess of Mallorca, cuts a pathetic figure. She has been in prison since July 2013, serving a six-year sentence for one of the corruption cases in which she was a central figure. Three months after she entered prison, the Supreme Court confirmed a five and a half year sentence in respect of a different case. She has returned to court, admitted wrongdoing in relation to yet another. A prison term for that will be substituted by a fine.
It was not just the sad, drawn and despairing countenance which spoke as though there had been a bereavement. There was the mourning black of the dyed hair. All vitality gone, it was as though she were attending her own funeral, shrouded in black, making confessions prior to a meeting with very much higher authorities than the Earthly ones who control her punishment.
It wasn't only Maria. Next to her on the hard, wooden bench of the courtroom was her one-time dauphin, Miquel Nadal. An extraordinary photo. Maria gaunt, Miquel almost as though he were suntanned despite his own incarceration for much the same corruption cases that burst from the one-time Unió Mallorquina. Yet his expression was strange. Fixed, wide-eyed. He's lost weight. How many more times will he be obliged to sit on that unyielding block of cold courtroom wood?
To his right was another. Francesc Buils, the tourism minister before Miquel. He is a courtroom regular too. Some while he ago, he was conveying a positive impression of his time inside. He even managed to get some words to the media. He was playing basketball, going to the gym, making the most of a bad job. He had appeared almost cheerful. Now, in this same photo, it seemed as though the weight was returning. The expression was blank, resigned.
In another court, many miles away, the one-time president of the Spanish confederation of businesses and co-partner in the Grupo Marsans empire, Gerardo Díaz Ferrán, wondered last October how much more pain and damage could be inflicted on one person. He referred to his "regrettable life" but also to what he claimed was a trial for something for which he had been previously acquitted. His regrettable life includes various illnesses from which he is said to be suffering.
Back in Mallorca, we have the various cast members of the Nóos trial. We have the close-up photos of the Infanta. There is no hiding place for her in the courtroom. For the most part, she is expressionless. She seeks to disguise reactions, but in the examination of her eyes, does one detect fear and anxiety? If there were once these with Maria, they have gone. The fear has gone, replaced only by the knowledge of inevitable greater humiliation. The eyes are dull. The life has gone.
The Infanta, for now, has Urdangarin. They can arrive at court together. But she seems to share something with Maria, with Miquel, Francesc and Gerardo. They are so terribly alone. It is this exposure of solitude as much as the rectitude of prosecutors that impel ever more such exposure that can shock as much as the empty expressions. Backs were turned long ago, just as backs have now been turned on Cristina, Urdangarin and Matas. The falls from grace, either confirmed or awaiting confirmation or acquittal, are made naked in front of the relentless examinations of prosecutor and voyeuristic media and public.
It is of course because of who they are. There are countless others who endure the same but who are never identified in such ways, who never parade personal grief in seeking the eliciting of sympathy. These are trials, in a sense, of reconciliation, of a nation at long last coming to terms with its unwritten rules that could permit immoral behaviour determined from on high. Matas, Munar, Díaz Ferrán; they are the coalition of political and corporate lives with their mutual benefits. The prosecutors, the public want, demand retribution, yet there lurks an uneasy sense that this reconciliation is one for a process to which society was often complicit. To what extent do the empty expressions mirror those of a public - not all of it, but some - which drew its own benefits and behaviours from tacit approval?
Perhaps there needs to be a broader reconciliation and examination of conscience. Sympathy? But for whom? Check the mirror and wonder if the failings in these faces are those of others.
Maria Munar, the one-time princess of Mallorca, cuts a pathetic figure. She has been in prison since July 2013, serving a six-year sentence for one of the corruption cases in which she was a central figure. Three months after she entered prison, the Supreme Court confirmed a five and a half year sentence in respect of a different case. She has returned to court, admitted wrongdoing in relation to yet another. A prison term for that will be substituted by a fine.
It was not just the sad, drawn and despairing countenance which spoke as though there had been a bereavement. There was the mourning black of the dyed hair. All vitality gone, it was as though she were attending her own funeral, shrouded in black, making confessions prior to a meeting with very much higher authorities than the Earthly ones who control her punishment.
It wasn't only Maria. Next to her on the hard, wooden bench of the courtroom was her one-time dauphin, Miquel Nadal. An extraordinary photo. Maria gaunt, Miquel almost as though he were suntanned despite his own incarceration for much the same corruption cases that burst from the one-time Unió Mallorquina. Yet his expression was strange. Fixed, wide-eyed. He's lost weight. How many more times will he be obliged to sit on that unyielding block of cold courtroom wood?
To his right was another. Francesc Buils, the tourism minister before Miquel. He is a courtroom regular too. Some while he ago, he was conveying a positive impression of his time inside. He even managed to get some words to the media. He was playing basketball, going to the gym, making the most of a bad job. He had appeared almost cheerful. Now, in this same photo, it seemed as though the weight was returning. The expression was blank, resigned.
In another court, many miles away, the one-time president of the Spanish confederation of businesses and co-partner in the Grupo Marsans empire, Gerardo Díaz Ferrán, wondered last October how much more pain and damage could be inflicted on one person. He referred to his "regrettable life" but also to what he claimed was a trial for something for which he had been previously acquitted. His regrettable life includes various illnesses from which he is said to be suffering.
Back in Mallorca, we have the various cast members of the Nóos trial. We have the close-up photos of the Infanta. There is no hiding place for her in the courtroom. For the most part, she is expressionless. She seeks to disguise reactions, but in the examination of her eyes, does one detect fear and anxiety? If there were once these with Maria, they have gone. The fear has gone, replaced only by the knowledge of inevitable greater humiliation. The eyes are dull. The life has gone.
The Infanta, for now, has Urdangarin. They can arrive at court together. But she seems to share something with Maria, with Miquel, Francesc and Gerardo. They are so terribly alone. It is this exposure of solitude as much as the rectitude of prosecutors that impel ever more such exposure that can shock as much as the empty expressions. Backs were turned long ago, just as backs have now been turned on Cristina, Urdangarin and Matas. The falls from grace, either confirmed or awaiting confirmation or acquittal, are made naked in front of the relentless examinations of prosecutor and voyeuristic media and public.
It is of course because of who they are. There are countless others who endure the same but who are never identified in such ways, who never parade personal grief in seeking the eliciting of sympathy. These are trials, in a sense, of reconciliation, of a nation at long last coming to terms with its unwritten rules that could permit immoral behaviour determined from on high. Matas, Munar, Díaz Ferrán; they are the coalition of political and corporate lives with their mutual benefits. The prosecutors, the public want, demand retribution, yet there lurks an uneasy sense that this reconciliation is one for a process to which society was often complicit. To what extent do the empty expressions mirror those of a public - not all of it, but some - which drew its own benefits and behaviours from tacit approval?
Perhaps there needs to be a broader reconciliation and examination of conscience. Sympathy? But for whom? Check the mirror and wonder if the failings in these faces are those of others.
Friday, January 29, 2016
Spinning For All It's Worth: Corruption
There are things that are always with us. In Spain, at any rate. Like the poor, there are the corrupt. Of the latter, perhaps we had been lulled into the falseness of belief that the well had been run dry and that the bucket had lifted all that remained and had deposited it either at His Majesty's Pleasure or onto the blue conference chairs of the defendants at Palma's School of Public Administration. If not Nóos, there are other legends of public life demanding judgement in various corners of the land.
The fact is that the well seems only to have been tapped. There is no drought here, and had there been any thoughts that there was, they have been dismissed. Here comes another hurricane. First, there was Acuamed. "We build the future of water." This is its slogan. While anxiety grows about a future of water scarcity, this government agency for public water works finds itself in the eye of the storm. Embraced in this affair are contracts that FCC had with the ministry for agriculture, food and environment. Bill Gates might be wondering about his shareholding, though the period under investigation does pre-date his acquisition of almost 6% of the stock.
If there is any solace for Mariano Rajoy, it will lie with the fact that the Acuamed affair seems to more or less correspond with the period when PSOE were in government. He can breathe a certain sigh of relief. But no sooner had Acuamed been sprung from the well, than along came "Taula". The table case in Valencia, so it is being said, might finally shed light on unknowns and mysteries surrounding irregular funding of the Partido Popular. It's appropriate that it should be Valencia, one half of the PP's nexus of alleged irregularities, separated by the seas of some 250 kilometres from these shores. Rajoy might be able to assign responsibility for Acuamed elsewhere. With Taula he cannot.
These latest affairs do not make it any easier for Rajoy to form the next government. He has said as much. But his latest offer to PSOE, one by which Podemos would be marginalised, can be seen as despicable. For all its faults, a central principle of Podemos is its stance against corruption (as is also the case with Ciudadanos). Rajoy is neglecting this. The public might not.
If the latest scandals weren't enough, the acting premier would have been aware of the latest report from Transparency International. Ranking the perception of corruption, country by country, as it does each year, Spain has registered its worst performance ever. It has slipped another place - to 36 out of a total of 168 countries - with its score having dropped six points since 2012, the period of the Rajoy administration.
The report does not suggest that there is systemic corruption. Nor does it say that there has been more corruption as such. It measures the perception of corruption, and in this regard the various cases surrounding public procurement are key: they are at the heart of the Acuamed affair, just as they are with Nóos, Palma Arena and Son Espases. It also observes, however, that such cases were more likely to have arisen during periods of good economic times when there was plenty of cash to be potentially diverted. Rajoy has presided over austerity, so maybe this, as much as any initiatives the government and the PP might claim to have instituted, has been a factor in any decline in corruption.
The PP, fighting to hold back the hurricane being unleashed by the latest affairs, points to a different report which suggests that it is the most transparent of all political parties in Spain. This comes from something called Dyntra, the Dynamic Transparency Index, which measures public information and so transparency. While Dyntra might give the PP a boost for what it has done over the past four years, the much wider report from Transparency International does not. It suggests, for example, that the government's law on transparency leaves much to be desired. A comprehensive programme to combat corruption is required. The PP will argue, as it is in order to give it any chance of clinging to power, that it has been "relentless" in tacking corruption over the past four years. Its relentlessness would not match that of Podemos, though. Comprehensiveness would come from parties other than the PP (or PSOE). Yet here is the PP trying to squeeze out the party which a significant part of the electorate supported for its anti-corruption principles.
While the PP will be spinning for all it's worth as it seeks to hang on, there has been a pathetic image that cuts deep. It is of María del Carmen García-Fuster, until now in charge of the treasury of the PP in the city of Valencia. She is in the back of a car, scared, frightened. The fates have caught up. Eventually, they do.
The fact is that the well seems only to have been tapped. There is no drought here, and had there been any thoughts that there was, they have been dismissed. Here comes another hurricane. First, there was Acuamed. "We build the future of water." This is its slogan. While anxiety grows about a future of water scarcity, this government agency for public water works finds itself in the eye of the storm. Embraced in this affair are contracts that FCC had with the ministry for agriculture, food and environment. Bill Gates might be wondering about his shareholding, though the period under investigation does pre-date his acquisition of almost 6% of the stock.
If there is any solace for Mariano Rajoy, it will lie with the fact that the Acuamed affair seems to more or less correspond with the period when PSOE were in government. He can breathe a certain sigh of relief. But no sooner had Acuamed been sprung from the well, than along came "Taula". The table case in Valencia, so it is being said, might finally shed light on unknowns and mysteries surrounding irregular funding of the Partido Popular. It's appropriate that it should be Valencia, one half of the PP's nexus of alleged irregularities, separated by the seas of some 250 kilometres from these shores. Rajoy might be able to assign responsibility for Acuamed elsewhere. With Taula he cannot.
These latest affairs do not make it any easier for Rajoy to form the next government. He has said as much. But his latest offer to PSOE, one by which Podemos would be marginalised, can be seen as despicable. For all its faults, a central principle of Podemos is its stance against corruption (as is also the case with Ciudadanos). Rajoy is neglecting this. The public might not.
If the latest scandals weren't enough, the acting premier would have been aware of the latest report from Transparency International. Ranking the perception of corruption, country by country, as it does each year, Spain has registered its worst performance ever. It has slipped another place - to 36 out of a total of 168 countries - with its score having dropped six points since 2012, the period of the Rajoy administration.
The report does not suggest that there is systemic corruption. Nor does it say that there has been more corruption as such. It measures the perception of corruption, and in this regard the various cases surrounding public procurement are key: they are at the heart of the Acuamed affair, just as they are with Nóos, Palma Arena and Son Espases. It also observes, however, that such cases were more likely to have arisen during periods of good economic times when there was plenty of cash to be potentially diverted. Rajoy has presided over austerity, so maybe this, as much as any initiatives the government and the PP might claim to have instituted, has been a factor in any decline in corruption.
The PP, fighting to hold back the hurricane being unleashed by the latest affairs, points to a different report which suggests that it is the most transparent of all political parties in Spain. This comes from something called Dyntra, the Dynamic Transparency Index, which measures public information and so transparency. While Dyntra might give the PP a boost for what it has done over the past four years, the much wider report from Transparency International does not. It suggests, for example, that the government's law on transparency leaves much to be desired. A comprehensive programme to combat corruption is required. The PP will argue, as it is in order to give it any chance of clinging to power, that it has been "relentless" in tacking corruption over the past four years. Its relentlessness would not match that of Podemos, though. Comprehensiveness would come from parties other than the PP (or PSOE). Yet here is the PP trying to squeeze out the party which a significant part of the electorate supported for its anti-corruption principles.
While the PP will be spinning for all it's worth as it seeks to hang on, there has been a pathetic image that cuts deep. It is of María del Carmen García-Fuster, until now in charge of the treasury of the PP in the city of Valencia. She is in the back of a car, scared, frightened. The fates have caught up. Eventually, they do.
Thursday, October 29, 2015
Restoring Trust: Local police
The regional government is to establish an Anti-Corruption Bureau. This will assume a function of being the people's observer of public debt, enabling - in good transparent and participatory fashion beloved of the current administration - the citizenry to participate in debt analysis. In other words, they can see where money is spent and who receives it. Well, hallelujah, something equating to freedom of information, of which there is precious little in Mallorca, or indeed in Spain.
Might this bureau acquire wider functions? Where should the anti-corruption stop? Why not let it consider the local police as well? Or is the anti-corruption prosecution service, together with higher police forces, sufficient for this purpose? Yes it is.
The bureau is not another prosecution service. By throwing open public spending to public scrutiny, its role, theoretically, is preventative. With transparency comes the elimination of corruption, it is to be hoped. It's a commendable step for a society that struggles to be open and to explain and which can give the impression of inaction when corrupt acts are suspected. Or at least did. As we know, the cases of corruption investigation are overwhelming and they reach to the very top of Spain's society.
The successes of Mallorca's anti-corruption prosecution service and investigating judges have made them public heroes, none more so than Judge Castro. These successes have helped to fuel the demands from specific political sources for vastly more openness and transparency. One of the great achievements of Podemos has been to force an alteration of the collective political mindset. This is not a total revolution, but the polling success of Podemos (and of Ciudadanos) alerted the political class to a new reality: it couldn't just go on hiding things and turning a blind eye. For all its faults, Podemos has proved to be a game-changer, and in recognition of the contribution that Judge Castro has made to a cultural upheaval of exposure, it approached him and asked if he might consider becoming an election candidate. The judge politely declined the offer.
As the government ushers in yet more anti-corruption power, it watches on, as do the citizens to whom it refers unerringly, as the grand cases approach their times of denouement: Son Espases, Palma Arena, Noos, Matas, Urdangarin, the princess. But as it waits the outcomes and their inevitable appeals that will drag on for years long after it is no longer in government, it is faced with a different source of corruption. Local police.
The arrests in Palma won't have come as a surprise. This has been bubbling away for at least two years, while the sleaze has already come to the courts with appearances related to the "alternative" clubs and the implications of a politician (or civil servant)-police-business nexus.
This is corruption of a different type to that of the grand cases, but it is one that has seemingly been endemic and not confined to one force. When the investigations started in Magalluf last year into activities of the local police, a source was quoted as saying that they had "never had so much documentation in a corruption case".
The minister Catalina Cladera, wearing her public administration hat as opposed to her finance one, says that there is a "lack of stability" among local police forces, especially those in the resorts. But what did she mean by this? Was this an implication that other forces are prone to corrupt behaviour? Perhaps it was, but if so, then it was politician-speak. She was using the government's desire to eliminate temporary policing - which has indeed been described as causing force instability - against a background of the Palma affair. She wasn't saying - certainly not overtly -that there were issues with other local police forces, but this is how it might be interpreted.
Inevitably though, the Palma and Magalluf cases lead to conclusions being made about other forces, some of which may or may not be justified. The government wishes to create a "new model of co-ordination of the local police forces", but it is one that should be predicated every bit on prevention (of corruption) as it is on getting the police to be "closer" to the people. But her analysis that police trained on their respective islands should then operate on their islands (or indeed in their home towns) may not be the wisest. This can be double-edged. The closer the police are, the closer they might be to some of the people (and businesses or politicians) than others.
The worst thing that can happen as a consequence of the Palma affair is that all local police are tarred by the same brush. The government faces a challenge every bit as great as the pursuit of corruption by the famous and the politicians. It faces one of ensuring public confidence in the police. Maybe it needs a special bureau.
Might this bureau acquire wider functions? Where should the anti-corruption stop? Why not let it consider the local police as well? Or is the anti-corruption prosecution service, together with higher police forces, sufficient for this purpose? Yes it is.
The bureau is not another prosecution service. By throwing open public spending to public scrutiny, its role, theoretically, is preventative. With transparency comes the elimination of corruption, it is to be hoped. It's a commendable step for a society that struggles to be open and to explain and which can give the impression of inaction when corrupt acts are suspected. Or at least did. As we know, the cases of corruption investigation are overwhelming and they reach to the very top of Spain's society.
The successes of Mallorca's anti-corruption prosecution service and investigating judges have made them public heroes, none more so than Judge Castro. These successes have helped to fuel the demands from specific political sources for vastly more openness and transparency. One of the great achievements of Podemos has been to force an alteration of the collective political mindset. This is not a total revolution, but the polling success of Podemos (and of Ciudadanos) alerted the political class to a new reality: it couldn't just go on hiding things and turning a blind eye. For all its faults, Podemos has proved to be a game-changer, and in recognition of the contribution that Judge Castro has made to a cultural upheaval of exposure, it approached him and asked if he might consider becoming an election candidate. The judge politely declined the offer.
As the government ushers in yet more anti-corruption power, it watches on, as do the citizens to whom it refers unerringly, as the grand cases approach their times of denouement: Son Espases, Palma Arena, Noos, Matas, Urdangarin, the princess. But as it waits the outcomes and their inevitable appeals that will drag on for years long after it is no longer in government, it is faced with a different source of corruption. Local police.
The arrests in Palma won't have come as a surprise. This has been bubbling away for at least two years, while the sleaze has already come to the courts with appearances related to the "alternative" clubs and the implications of a politician (or civil servant)-police-business nexus.
This is corruption of a different type to that of the grand cases, but it is one that has seemingly been endemic and not confined to one force. When the investigations started in Magalluf last year into activities of the local police, a source was quoted as saying that they had "never had so much documentation in a corruption case".
The minister Catalina Cladera, wearing her public administration hat as opposed to her finance one, says that there is a "lack of stability" among local police forces, especially those in the resorts. But what did she mean by this? Was this an implication that other forces are prone to corrupt behaviour? Perhaps it was, but if so, then it was politician-speak. She was using the government's desire to eliminate temporary policing - which has indeed been described as causing force instability - against a background of the Palma affair. She wasn't saying - certainly not overtly -that there were issues with other local police forces, but this is how it might be interpreted.
Inevitably though, the Palma and Magalluf cases lead to conclusions being made about other forces, some of which may or may not be justified. The government wishes to create a "new model of co-ordination of the local police forces", but it is one that should be predicated every bit on prevention (of corruption) as it is on getting the police to be "closer" to the people. But her analysis that police trained on their respective islands should then operate on their islands (or indeed in their home towns) may not be the wisest. This can be double-edged. The closer the police are, the closer they might be to some of the people (and businesses or politicians) than others.
The worst thing that can happen as a consequence of the Palma affair is that all local police are tarred by the same brush. The government faces a challenge every bit as great as the pursuit of corruption by the famous and the politicians. It faces one of ensuring public confidence in the police. Maybe it needs a special bureau.
Thursday, June 04, 2015
The Special Relationship? America and corruption
As news was coming in on Tuesday regarding the extraordinary development at FIFA, there was discussion as to why the FBI and US prosecutors were taking such an interest in FIFA affairs. Here, after all, is a country that doesn't have much football tradition. Yes, it has a reasonable team, it has staged a World Cup and would hope to hold further tournaments, but in terms of the global game, the US is not in its premier league. So why all the interest?
The most revealing explanation was that to do with Obama's agenda to root out corruption - wherever it might be. The world's policeman is the world's anti-corruption prosecutor as well. And to get a flavour of this, one only has to take a look at what was posted onto the White House's website on 24 September last year.
"President Obama and the US Government continue to drive a robust agenda to stem corruption around the world and hold to account those who exploit the public’s trust for private gain. Preventing corruption preserves funds for public revenue and thereby helps drive development and economic growth. By contrast, pervasive corruption siphons revenue away from the public budget and undermines the rule of law and the confidence of citizens in their governments, facilitates human rights abuses and organized crime, empowers authoritarian rulers, and can threaten the stability of entire regions. The United States views corruption as a growing threat to the national security of our country and allies around the world."
This briefing goes on at considerable length in explaining how the US has become a "global leader on anti-corruption efforts". Among its various "actions" include "working with other countries to promote anti-corruption, transparency and open government". Maybe the US had been talking to the Swiss Government and Swiss prosecutors. But while the reports were of FIFA and possibly Blatter being fingered, thoughts turned elsewhere. Spain.
Ángel María Villar Llona is the president of the Spanish Football Federation. He has been since 1988. He is also a vice-president of FIFA. In the recent vote for the FIFA presidency, Spain sided with Blatter. This was hardly surprising. When the spoils for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups were announced, Villar Llona rounded on those who were accusing FIFA of corruption (principally the British media) by saying that "FIFA is clean and does things with honesty". He has echoed Blatter's sentiment that FIFA represents a football "family". When he was re-elected as president in 2008, he spoke of the "union between all the families of football". He taunted the English FA with its talk of "allegations", ones which should not be made about families. He was one of those who, when David Bernstein of the FA spoke out against Blatter, turned on Bernstein and the FA.
In 2010, a Spanish judge concluded that Villar Llona and other directors of the Spanish federation should be absolved of accusations that had been made against them, though the judge did say that there had been "abominable management in accounting for trips, expenses and purchase of foreign currency".
Villar Llona was due to have been restored as FIFA's head of referees, reward for backing Blatter in his re-election campaign; this, despite his facing possible sanctions related to the bidding for the 2018 World Cup. Where does Blatter's resignation leave Villar Llona?
But while the Spanish Football Federation may now look a little isolated within UEFA (not totally of course because the French, among others, had also supported Blatter), what about Spain, as in its government?
The US and Spain have generally had a strong relationship. It was the Americans who primarily brought Franco into the twentieth century by having - with the help of the likes of American Express - promoted the tourism which was to explode in the 1960s. The Americans also gave Franco military support. More recently, there were strains in the relationship because of Zapatero's opposition to the Iraq War, though Spain did then support US policy in Afghanistan. Under Rajoy, relations have been more cordial. But what about corruption?
As if the Partido Popular and the Spanish Government needed any more reminder of the issue, at the same time as the PP was getting a kicking in regional elections, there were more arrests in Valencia while a judge, in addition to opening proceedings against former PP officials in respect of the so-called "B accounts" affair, was fixing a civil bond of 1.2 million on the PP.
One looks at the wording from the White House statement of September last year. While some of it would not apply to Spain, some of it does. FIFA's affairs are one thing, but what of those of the Spanish Government? What does Obama make of corruption charges here? And what would the US make of Spain were it to be governed by parties of the left with anti-corruption agendas?
The most revealing explanation was that to do with Obama's agenda to root out corruption - wherever it might be. The world's policeman is the world's anti-corruption prosecutor as well. And to get a flavour of this, one only has to take a look at what was posted onto the White House's website on 24 September last year.
"President Obama and the US Government continue to drive a robust agenda to stem corruption around the world and hold to account those who exploit the public’s trust for private gain. Preventing corruption preserves funds for public revenue and thereby helps drive development and economic growth. By contrast, pervasive corruption siphons revenue away from the public budget and undermines the rule of law and the confidence of citizens in their governments, facilitates human rights abuses and organized crime, empowers authoritarian rulers, and can threaten the stability of entire regions. The United States views corruption as a growing threat to the national security of our country and allies around the world."
This briefing goes on at considerable length in explaining how the US has become a "global leader on anti-corruption efforts". Among its various "actions" include "working with other countries to promote anti-corruption, transparency and open government". Maybe the US had been talking to the Swiss Government and Swiss prosecutors. But while the reports were of FIFA and possibly Blatter being fingered, thoughts turned elsewhere. Spain.
Ángel María Villar Llona is the president of the Spanish Football Federation. He has been since 1988. He is also a vice-president of FIFA. In the recent vote for the FIFA presidency, Spain sided with Blatter. This was hardly surprising. When the spoils for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups were announced, Villar Llona rounded on those who were accusing FIFA of corruption (principally the British media) by saying that "FIFA is clean and does things with honesty". He has echoed Blatter's sentiment that FIFA represents a football "family". When he was re-elected as president in 2008, he spoke of the "union between all the families of football". He taunted the English FA with its talk of "allegations", ones which should not be made about families. He was one of those who, when David Bernstein of the FA spoke out against Blatter, turned on Bernstein and the FA.
In 2010, a Spanish judge concluded that Villar Llona and other directors of the Spanish federation should be absolved of accusations that had been made against them, though the judge did say that there had been "abominable management in accounting for trips, expenses and purchase of foreign currency".
Villar Llona was due to have been restored as FIFA's head of referees, reward for backing Blatter in his re-election campaign; this, despite his facing possible sanctions related to the bidding for the 2018 World Cup. Where does Blatter's resignation leave Villar Llona?
But while the Spanish Football Federation may now look a little isolated within UEFA (not totally of course because the French, among others, had also supported Blatter), what about Spain, as in its government?
The US and Spain have generally had a strong relationship. It was the Americans who primarily brought Franco into the twentieth century by having - with the help of the likes of American Express - promoted the tourism which was to explode in the 1960s. The Americans also gave Franco military support. More recently, there were strains in the relationship because of Zapatero's opposition to the Iraq War, though Spain did then support US policy in Afghanistan. Under Rajoy, relations have been more cordial. But what about corruption?
As if the Partido Popular and the Spanish Government needed any more reminder of the issue, at the same time as the PP was getting a kicking in regional elections, there were more arrests in Valencia while a judge, in addition to opening proceedings against former PP officials in respect of the so-called "B accounts" affair, was fixing a civil bond of 1.2 million on the PP.
One looks at the wording from the White House statement of September last year. While some of it would not apply to Spain, some of it does. FIFA's affairs are one thing, but what of those of the Spanish Government? What does Obama make of corruption charges here? And what would the US make of Spain were it to be governed by parties of the left with anti-corruption agendas?
Monday, June 01, 2015
Arresting Angelic Spanish
Oh my good Lord. "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts." Where's the Lord when you need Him? Nowhere, it would appear, when the National Police come a-knocking. "We're coming to get you, Seraphim." Not even the fact that Seraphim is the archangel who looks over the police could prevent this. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. And there was worse still. This was the angel of Spanish. Serafín Castellano. Banged up. Corruption. Allegedly. What else would it be?
How terribly ironic that the national government delegate to Valencia (a Partido Popular one) who bears the name of one of the two official languages of Spain - the one that the PP typically has a preference for - should, firstly, be the government delegate in Catalan-variant-speaking Valencia and, secondly, that he should find plod banging on the door waving around a corruption charge only a few days after the regional elections. The ones in which corruption didn't play a part. Or did, depending on which PP apologist was speaking. Rajoy must be spitting feathers. Those of an angel's wings with the name of Castellano-Spanish, to boot. Spanish was under arrest.
Well, did corruption play a part? According to the Balearics PP government spokesperson Nuria Riera, it didn't. It was all the fault of errors in communication. Which was something of an admission for the PP spokesperson to make. It was all her fault then. But Nuria was holding her hands up - not as the police were waving guns in her direction - but in confessing that there would now be a need for "self-criticism": the same self-criticism that was going to be applied after the stuffing at the Euro elections last year but which wasn't.
What a wretched week last week was for Nuria. She was the one with the awkward task of publicly announcing election results on the telly. She could be seen visibly shrinking as the awful truth was being revealed. Much as she might have preferred for there to have been one final burst of communication error, it was impossible: her party was going down the pan. But while she insisted that the corruption hovering over the PP with its now angelic, non-Catalan symbolism was not a factor, others fessed up and said it was. Like, for instance, the president of the PP in Palma, José María Rodríguez. Well he should know, having only avoided a rap thanks to the statute of limitations.
Nuria was left to struggle with the communication breakdown between PP Balearics and PP Central. There is going to be a party congress at the end of the summer, she insisted. Oh no there isn't, said central office. You'll have to wait until after the general election. Why this apparent difference of opinion or communication error? Nothing to do with José Ramón Bauzá wishing to clear the PP leadership decks in the Balearics and prepare his campaign to be elected as a PP Balearics delegate to the national parliament? Or was it one final - and vain - attempt to demonstrate that PP Balearics was more regionalist than its critics would suggest and wasn't a mere puppet of central office?
How terribly ironic that the national government delegate to Valencia (a Partido Popular one) who bears the name of one of the two official languages of Spain - the one that the PP typically has a preference for - should, firstly, be the government delegate in Catalan-variant-speaking Valencia and, secondly, that he should find plod banging on the door waving around a corruption charge only a few days after the regional elections. The ones in which corruption didn't play a part. Or did, depending on which PP apologist was speaking. Rajoy must be spitting feathers. Those of an angel's wings with the name of Castellano-Spanish, to boot. Spanish was under arrest.
Well, did corruption play a part? According to the Balearics PP government spokesperson Nuria Riera, it didn't. It was all the fault of errors in communication. Which was something of an admission for the PP spokesperson to make. It was all her fault then. But Nuria was holding her hands up - not as the police were waving guns in her direction - but in confessing that there would now be a need for "self-criticism": the same self-criticism that was going to be applied after the stuffing at the Euro elections last year but which wasn't.
What a wretched week last week was for Nuria. She was the one with the awkward task of publicly announcing election results on the telly. She could be seen visibly shrinking as the awful truth was being revealed. Much as she might have preferred for there to have been one final burst of communication error, it was impossible: her party was going down the pan. But while she insisted that the corruption hovering over the PP with its now angelic, non-Catalan symbolism was not a factor, others fessed up and said it was. Like, for instance, the president of the PP in Palma, José María Rodríguez. Well he should know, having only avoided a rap thanks to the statute of limitations.
Nuria was left to struggle with the communication breakdown between PP Balearics and PP Central. There is going to be a party congress at the end of the summer, she insisted. Oh no there isn't, said central office. You'll have to wait until after the general election. Why this apparent difference of opinion or communication error? Nothing to do with José Ramón Bauzá wishing to clear the PP leadership decks in the Balearics and prepare his campaign to be elected as a PP Balearics delegate to the national parliament? Or was it one final - and vain - attempt to demonstrate that PP Balearics was more regionalist than its critics would suggest and wasn't a mere puppet of central office?
Wednesday, May 13, 2015
The Good Cops Of The Resorts
German tourists in Playa de Palma have started to take things into their hands. They have been making posters which can be stuck into the sand which declare "no sunglasses", "no massage". There are also t-shirts bearing the same messages. The targets of these messages should be obvious. Other German tourists have been behaving in a somewhat less responsible fashion. On more than one occasion, great hordes of them have taken to the main road, chanting and blocking traffic.
There is a common thread to these two separate examples of how tourists behave. The local police. Here is a resort which is subject to a city ordinance that was designed to bring an end to (or at least reduce) anti-social behaviour and illegal trades. Yet, there are tourists who are so fed up with the pestering they receive from the lookies and the massage girls that they have sought to deter them, while there are others who appear to be able to brazenly take to the streets (a main road no less) and conduct themselves in a wholly inappropriate manner. Where are the police?
Well, one factor is that the reinforcement of local police numbers isn't due to take effect until 1 June. Why? The tourism season, in a sort of official sense, starts on 1 May; in truth, it does of course start earlier. Is a 1 June commencement for the reinforcement a reflection of the laments that the season has become ever shorter? It shouldn't be. The security forces should not be bound by notions of seasonality.
Local police numbers can of course only ever be finite. Resources dictate this. Police numbers are dwarfed by the sheer volume of visitors - both welcome and unwelcome. There is mitigation, therefore. They, the finite numbers which exist, can't be everywhere. Nevertheless, these examples from Playa de Palma highlight a problem - not just one of police numbers but of image.
Last summer, the public prosecutor started the second phase of an investigation into the local police force that had been opened the previous September. Various police officers were being looked into. Allegations included trafficking of influence and bribery. The Guardia Civil had been called in and had raided a police station in 2013.
Earlier this year, a well-known businessman (unnamed) with interests in nightlife in Playa de Palma was arrested. This investigation is now in court. Witnesses have been giving evidence of payments to one officer for "turning a blind eye", who was apparently prone to visiting one particular club owner in seeking ever more payment. These witnesses have also spoken of orgies involving prostitutes which were attended by public officials, including one mayor from the "part forana" of Mallorca, i.e. away from Palma. Police officers did not, according to witnesses, attend these orgies, but there were alleged "arrangements" for alcohol and sex, though never payments.
This investigation and the complaints about an absence of police in the resort are not linked, except in one way: image. They might also be said to be linked through an issue of morale. The good cops are operating against a background of an ongoing investigation into allegedly bad cops. While lookies and massage girls patrol the beaches and German tourists maraud across the main road and can all do so with apparent impunity, a link - however false - might be made. The good cops are damned, and unreasonably so, by association.
There is of course a similarity between events in Playa de Palma and those in Magalluf. Police corruption allegations arose there last summer, and with the new season upon us, the good cops - and the Guardia - appear to still have their hands tied by regulations that do not allow them to tackle the resort's principal problem of the mugging prostitutes, while, for reasons that baffle many, they cannot yet enforce local ordinance designed to tackle anti-social behaviour.
Whether this ordinance, once it is in place, achieves what it is designed to is questioned by many, just as it is in Playa de Palma. And if it fails, then the image of the police (and of politicians) will be dented further. Some bad cops may have brought this negative image upon themselves and, by association, their forces, but the good cops have to be given the means.
There is this vast gap between developments of resort embellishment and improvement and the lights of the more seedy infrastructure which attracts the moths of poor behaviour and criminality. Tourism will always attract these, but they don't have to be a given or to be to the extent that they are, and until such a time as the greater excesses are truly stamped on and stamped out, the investments of embellishment will be undermined, their returns limited by this at present unreconcilable discrepancy. Give the cops what they need - the good ones, that is - but, by God, make sure they are the good ones.
There is a common thread to these two separate examples of how tourists behave. The local police. Here is a resort which is subject to a city ordinance that was designed to bring an end to (or at least reduce) anti-social behaviour and illegal trades. Yet, there are tourists who are so fed up with the pestering they receive from the lookies and the massage girls that they have sought to deter them, while there are others who appear to be able to brazenly take to the streets (a main road no less) and conduct themselves in a wholly inappropriate manner. Where are the police?
Well, one factor is that the reinforcement of local police numbers isn't due to take effect until 1 June. Why? The tourism season, in a sort of official sense, starts on 1 May; in truth, it does of course start earlier. Is a 1 June commencement for the reinforcement a reflection of the laments that the season has become ever shorter? It shouldn't be. The security forces should not be bound by notions of seasonality.
Local police numbers can of course only ever be finite. Resources dictate this. Police numbers are dwarfed by the sheer volume of visitors - both welcome and unwelcome. There is mitigation, therefore. They, the finite numbers which exist, can't be everywhere. Nevertheless, these examples from Playa de Palma highlight a problem - not just one of police numbers but of image.
Last summer, the public prosecutor started the second phase of an investigation into the local police force that had been opened the previous September. Various police officers were being looked into. Allegations included trafficking of influence and bribery. The Guardia Civil had been called in and had raided a police station in 2013.
Earlier this year, a well-known businessman (unnamed) with interests in nightlife in Playa de Palma was arrested. This investigation is now in court. Witnesses have been giving evidence of payments to one officer for "turning a blind eye", who was apparently prone to visiting one particular club owner in seeking ever more payment. These witnesses have also spoken of orgies involving prostitutes which were attended by public officials, including one mayor from the "part forana" of Mallorca, i.e. away from Palma. Police officers did not, according to witnesses, attend these orgies, but there were alleged "arrangements" for alcohol and sex, though never payments.
This investigation and the complaints about an absence of police in the resort are not linked, except in one way: image. They might also be said to be linked through an issue of morale. The good cops are operating against a background of an ongoing investigation into allegedly bad cops. While lookies and massage girls patrol the beaches and German tourists maraud across the main road and can all do so with apparent impunity, a link - however false - might be made. The good cops are damned, and unreasonably so, by association.
There is of course a similarity between events in Playa de Palma and those in Magalluf. Police corruption allegations arose there last summer, and with the new season upon us, the good cops - and the Guardia - appear to still have their hands tied by regulations that do not allow them to tackle the resort's principal problem of the mugging prostitutes, while, for reasons that baffle many, they cannot yet enforce local ordinance designed to tackle anti-social behaviour.
Whether this ordinance, once it is in place, achieves what it is designed to is questioned by many, just as it is in Playa de Palma. And if it fails, then the image of the police (and of politicians) will be dented further. Some bad cops may have brought this negative image upon themselves and, by association, their forces, but the good cops have to be given the means.
There is this vast gap between developments of resort embellishment and improvement and the lights of the more seedy infrastructure which attracts the moths of poor behaviour and criminality. Tourism will always attract these, but they don't have to be a given or to be to the extent that they are, and until such a time as the greater excesses are truly stamped on and stamped out, the investments of embellishment will be undermined, their returns limited by this at present unreconcilable discrepancy. Give the cops what they need - the good ones, that is - but, by God, make sure they are the good ones.
Tuesday, March 03, 2015
The Politics Of Regeneration
The people of the Balearics have been asked what they think about the political situation in the islands and in the country. The good news is that there are more who think the situation is very good in the Balearics than in Spain: 1.1% beats 0.1%. The bad news is that, no surprise here, over three quarters believe that the Balearics situation is bad or very bad. It is worse in Spain, but that will be small comfort to an islands' political class which might previously have taken little notice of such findings but which now finds that it has to take note. Democratic regeneration is on everyone's lips (well, not quite everyone's) and the various parties are galvanising themselves into regenerative action, having been stung out of their inertia by the regenerators of Podemos.
This political flavour of the moment is even being tasted by the Balearics' Partido Popular, President Bauzá claiming that it is only the PP which can regenerate democracy. Given that it has been the PP which has been principally responsible for its degeneration, this might sound a bit rich, but then as we know the president is apparently steadfast in his desire to drive out corruption, and it is corruption that, according to the recent survey by the research organisation Gadeso, is the main cause of this degeneration. Fighting the fight against corruption or not, it is doubtful whether Bauzá would have suddenly discovered a regeneration zeal had it not been for Podemos going around telling everyone that democracy needed regenerating.
There are other parties who have been waving the flag of regeneration for a few years longer than Podemos has been, but it is unquestionably the emergence of Podemos and its campaigning against corruption and the political system that has brought the issue to the front of the public's mind. It is doubtful that the public would, until recently, have been asked about democratic regeneration; it is a mark of the impact that Podemos has had that the question should now be being put.
The Gadeso survey concludes that confidence in the post-Franco political system is at an all-time low (which we knew anyway), and the causes are familiar ones. Corruption and dissatisfaction with the political system cover a multitude of sins, so they are not just about trousering some dodgy money. Lack of transparency, lousy communications and aloofness, nepotism and "amiguismo" (favouring friends) and sheer inefficiency are all identified. Basically, the whole system sucks, and into this mix can be added the perceived ills of the justice system (unfair, too slow, not independent): the second greatest concern after corruption.
While discontent with political systems is not unique to the Balearics or Spain, the system here has its peculiarities which mean that it is not as entrenched as elsewhere. The main target for the discontent is the dominant two-party system (the PP and PSOE). Yet this is comparatively new. The PP is only 26 years old. Its forerunner, the Alianza Popular, with its Francoist hangover, was not a great power in the land. It performed well enough in some regions (the first Balearics government was an Alianza one) but not nationally, being soundly stuffed by PSOE at both the 1982 and 1986 general elections. It reinvented itself as the PP in 1989 and finally gained power for the first time in 1996 under José María Aznar.
The two-party status quo, while it has endured for a generation in its current guise, is far less established than in certain other countries. Allied to this relative newness, there is, as revealed by all the survey's anxieties, a perpetuation of what existed before democracy and indeed well before Franco. It is a system which, in a sense, hasn't grown up, and as it hasn't matured, the potential to disrupt it is greater than might be the case elsewhere. And this, as evidenced by the rise of Podemos, is what is happening.
One way in which the established parties are trying to put the fear of God into the electorate is by referring to Podemos as a dangerous "experiment" which threatens democracy. Describing it as an experiment is reasonable enough, but then it might be said that the system which finally emerged with the PP in 1989 has also been an experiment, and if democracy is in such need of regeneration as it appears to be, then one conclude that the experiment has not succeeded. Can a different approach be described as a threat to democracy when the one it seeks to replace has been so discredited?
For all this and for all that Podemos has taken the lead in espousing regeneration, even it needs to look at what the survey finds. Yes, Podemos is considered to be more capable of democratic regeneration than other parties, but it trails by fifteen points the survey winner: no party will be capable.
This political flavour of the moment is even being tasted by the Balearics' Partido Popular, President Bauzá claiming that it is only the PP which can regenerate democracy. Given that it has been the PP which has been principally responsible for its degeneration, this might sound a bit rich, but then as we know the president is apparently steadfast in his desire to drive out corruption, and it is corruption that, according to the recent survey by the research organisation Gadeso, is the main cause of this degeneration. Fighting the fight against corruption or not, it is doubtful whether Bauzá would have suddenly discovered a regeneration zeal had it not been for Podemos going around telling everyone that democracy needed regenerating.
There are other parties who have been waving the flag of regeneration for a few years longer than Podemos has been, but it is unquestionably the emergence of Podemos and its campaigning against corruption and the political system that has brought the issue to the front of the public's mind. It is doubtful that the public would, until recently, have been asked about democratic regeneration; it is a mark of the impact that Podemos has had that the question should now be being put.
The Gadeso survey concludes that confidence in the post-Franco political system is at an all-time low (which we knew anyway), and the causes are familiar ones. Corruption and dissatisfaction with the political system cover a multitude of sins, so they are not just about trousering some dodgy money. Lack of transparency, lousy communications and aloofness, nepotism and "amiguismo" (favouring friends) and sheer inefficiency are all identified. Basically, the whole system sucks, and into this mix can be added the perceived ills of the justice system (unfair, too slow, not independent): the second greatest concern after corruption.
While discontent with political systems is not unique to the Balearics or Spain, the system here has its peculiarities which mean that it is not as entrenched as elsewhere. The main target for the discontent is the dominant two-party system (the PP and PSOE). Yet this is comparatively new. The PP is only 26 years old. Its forerunner, the Alianza Popular, with its Francoist hangover, was not a great power in the land. It performed well enough in some regions (the first Balearics government was an Alianza one) but not nationally, being soundly stuffed by PSOE at both the 1982 and 1986 general elections. It reinvented itself as the PP in 1989 and finally gained power for the first time in 1996 under José María Aznar.
The two-party status quo, while it has endured for a generation in its current guise, is far less established than in certain other countries. Allied to this relative newness, there is, as revealed by all the survey's anxieties, a perpetuation of what existed before democracy and indeed well before Franco. It is a system which, in a sense, hasn't grown up, and as it hasn't matured, the potential to disrupt it is greater than might be the case elsewhere. And this, as evidenced by the rise of Podemos, is what is happening.
One way in which the established parties are trying to put the fear of God into the electorate is by referring to Podemos as a dangerous "experiment" which threatens democracy. Describing it as an experiment is reasonable enough, but then it might be said that the system which finally emerged with the PP in 1989 has also been an experiment, and if democracy is in such need of regeneration as it appears to be, then one conclude that the experiment has not succeeded. Can a different approach be described as a threat to democracy when the one it seeks to replace has been so discredited?
For all this and for all that Podemos has taken the lead in espousing regeneration, even it needs to look at what the survey finds. Yes, Podemos is considered to be more capable of democratic regeneration than other parties, but it trails by fifteen points the survey winner: no party will be capable.
Saturday, February 28, 2015
A Politician With No Idea
"I have no idea." As statements from politicians go, you couldn't ask for a better one than this, and who better to deliver it than the Partido Popular gift who keeps on giving, Mabel At The Table Cabrer? Never normally lost for a word or several - calling the opposition Nazis, for instance - the PP parliamentary goatherd was for once reduced to four-word cluelessness (actually there are five words in both Spanish and Catalan). Yet earlier in the week, Mabel had been vocalising in shouty spokesperson mode when condemning the "crusade" being led by the opposition against her own crusader, the Dracula-caped one, battling corruption wherever it may lurk. Be amazed as José Ramón fights the fraudulent. Gasp as he despatches the deceitful and expels the embezzlers. But Mabel would have been sore afeared at the sight of Judge Dredd roaring towards the courts on his Harley steel horse. The judge who should be dreaded, the OAP oath taker José Castro had been hearing from an axe-grinder.
Javier Rodrigo de Santos, the newly saintly Rodrigo, released from the penance of his misuse of his Palma town hall credit card and rent boys, was twisting the knife. Beans were spilling from His Holiness Rod (dismissed as a "confessed and convicted offender" by another spokesperson, Miguel Ramis) and they amounted to a great deal more than a hill. A mountain was built, and Rodrigo was music to the ears of the judge and subsequently of the anti-corruption prosecutors. Construction businesses had benefited from having been given public works contracts in exchange for which they had been handing 3% commissions to the Jaume Matas-era PP.
It was these commissions that Mabel had no idea about. She could proudly proclaim that she was now part of a PP that was totally new and which had nothing to do with the old Matas model PP. In Bauzá's new model PP army, things are different. Oh, by the way, Mabel had been the minister for public works under Matas.
The blood freshly dripping from the jugular of the revenge of Rodrigo, the vultures swooped. Biel Barceló of Més: Bauzá was "chained to the past" of the corruption of the PP. Fina Santiago, also Més: Rodrigo had confirmed the existence of a "mafia structure and generalised corruption within the PP". For PSOE, Rodrigo's evidence pointed to "systematic corruption" in the Matas government. The Caped Crusader retaliated by stating that his was a profile without corruption, an announcement that lacked a real sense of zap or pow, just as Bauzá the video did. What do you mean you haven't seen it? José Ramón wants to talk to you, so long as it is in Castellano or Catalan. No mention of any trilingual dialogue in giving "sufficient reasons for you to trust us again".
There were those who suggested that the talk-talk video showed signs of desperation. I prefer to think that it showed where linguistic preferences lay. By Friday, four days after having been posted, the Castellano version was beating the Catalan one by 370 views (3,385 versus 3,015). The combined total would, were they all to trust them again, fail to make much inroad into the lost support in the opinion polls. Anyway, if you wish to, you can talk to the president: Email, joseramon@gestionbauza.com; Whatsapp, 610 176 291; Twitter, @JRBauza; Facebook, José Ramón Bauzá.
Index for February 2015
AENA privatisation - 13 February 2015
Alcúdia anti-all inclusive party - 7 February 2015
All-inclusive control - 26 February 2015
Andratx, mayors and corruption - 11 February 2015
Balearics stand at Fitur and King Felipe - 5 February 2015
Canary Islands versus AENA privatisation - 24 February 2015
Eco-tax - 25 February 2015, 27 February 2015
Electoral pacts by Mallorca's left - 22 February 2015
Felanitx Theory: Columbus - 10 February 2015
Fitur tourism fair - 6 February 2015
Flu and hospital emergencies - 4 February 2015
Mallorca's hoteliers: unloved - 9 February 2015
Més and Balearics' own airline - 16 February 2015
Palma fiesta planning - 2 February 2015
Partido Popular corruption - 28 February 2015
Podemos power struggles - 3 February 2015
Podemos versus hoteliers - 18 February 2015
Police corruption in Palma - 1 February 2015
Pollensa: Day of destruction - 14 February 2015
Pope in Mallorca - 12 February 2015
PSOE and participation - 8 February 2015
Regional elections opinion poll - 23 February 2015
Sardine burial and Lent - 15 February 2015
Simplicity and Mallorcan winter marketing - 19 February 2015
Tourism ministry and a feeling for tourism - 20 February 2015
Town hall reduction - 17 February 2015
Virgen del Carmen fiesta and Saint Simon Stock - 21 February 2015
Javier Rodrigo de Santos, the newly saintly Rodrigo, released from the penance of his misuse of his Palma town hall credit card and rent boys, was twisting the knife. Beans were spilling from His Holiness Rod (dismissed as a "confessed and convicted offender" by another spokesperson, Miguel Ramis) and they amounted to a great deal more than a hill. A mountain was built, and Rodrigo was music to the ears of the judge and subsequently of the anti-corruption prosecutors. Construction businesses had benefited from having been given public works contracts in exchange for which they had been handing 3% commissions to the Jaume Matas-era PP.
It was these commissions that Mabel had no idea about. She could proudly proclaim that she was now part of a PP that was totally new and which had nothing to do with the old Matas model PP. In Bauzá's new model PP army, things are different. Oh, by the way, Mabel had been the minister for public works under Matas.
The blood freshly dripping from the jugular of the revenge of Rodrigo, the vultures swooped. Biel Barceló of Més: Bauzá was "chained to the past" of the corruption of the PP. Fina Santiago, also Més: Rodrigo had confirmed the existence of a "mafia structure and generalised corruption within the PP". For PSOE, Rodrigo's evidence pointed to "systematic corruption" in the Matas government. The Caped Crusader retaliated by stating that his was a profile without corruption, an announcement that lacked a real sense of zap or pow, just as Bauzá the video did. What do you mean you haven't seen it? José Ramón wants to talk to you, so long as it is in Castellano or Catalan. No mention of any trilingual dialogue in giving "sufficient reasons for you to trust us again".
There were those who suggested that the talk-talk video showed signs of desperation. I prefer to think that it showed where linguistic preferences lay. By Friday, four days after having been posted, the Castellano version was beating the Catalan one by 370 views (3,385 versus 3,015). The combined total would, were they all to trust them again, fail to make much inroad into the lost support in the opinion polls. Anyway, if you wish to, you can talk to the president: Email, joseramon@gestionbauza.com; Whatsapp, 610 176 291; Twitter, @JRBauza; Facebook, José Ramón Bauzá.
Index for February 2015
AENA privatisation - 13 February 2015
Alcúdia anti-all inclusive party - 7 February 2015
All-inclusive control - 26 February 2015
Andratx, mayors and corruption - 11 February 2015
Balearics stand at Fitur and King Felipe - 5 February 2015
Canary Islands versus AENA privatisation - 24 February 2015
Eco-tax - 25 February 2015, 27 February 2015
Electoral pacts by Mallorca's left - 22 February 2015
Felanitx Theory: Columbus - 10 February 2015
Fitur tourism fair - 6 February 2015
Flu and hospital emergencies - 4 February 2015
Mallorca's hoteliers: unloved - 9 February 2015
Més and Balearics' own airline - 16 February 2015
Palma fiesta planning - 2 February 2015
Partido Popular corruption - 28 February 2015
Podemos power struggles - 3 February 2015
Podemos versus hoteliers - 18 February 2015
Police corruption in Palma - 1 February 2015
Pollensa: Day of destruction - 14 February 2015
Pope in Mallorca - 12 February 2015
PSOE and participation - 8 February 2015
Regional elections opinion poll - 23 February 2015
Sardine burial and Lent - 15 February 2015
Simplicity and Mallorcan winter marketing - 19 February 2015
Tourism ministry and a feeling for tourism - 20 February 2015
Town hall reduction - 17 February 2015
Virgen del Carmen fiesta and Saint Simon Stock - 21 February 2015
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
The House That Eugenio Built
They sent the bulldozers in during the second week of November 2010. The wrecking and tidying-up crews worked efficiently and effectively. Where a chalet had stood became once more a plot of land in an area of special countryside protection: pastoral equilibrium was re-established. The chalet, over seventy square metres in size, should not have been built. The only licence for building had been for the renovation of a farm shed.
Who is to say that had the chalet not been demolished that it would not now be subject to "regularisation"? Many a property on Mallorca's rural land was granted an amnesty last year under the regional government's Ley de Suelo. The futures of some of these buildings would have been documented and stored in the pending trays of town halls or other authorities, some stamped in red with a threatening "denuncia", awaiting transmission to the courts. Their executions had been stayed at their death rows among bucolic greenery until one day came the pardon. Pay a suitable retribution and all will be forgiven. The bulldozers sighed. There was no work for them.
But the chalet I mention never had a chance. It had to be removed and to be levelled. It had to be restored as a place of natural habitat. There is no X to mark the spot of where it was. You wouldn't know it had ever been there. This was ground-zero chalet. There were strong political as well as legal reasons why all physical memory of it should have been expunged. This had been the chalet that Eugenio had built.
Eugenio Hidalgo, the one-time and now disgraced and imprisoned mayor of Andratx, was one of the unlucky ones. Unlucky because, though he engaged in widespread planning abuses and got sent to prison as a result, he might well have believed that, abuse or not, the chalet would eventually be given official reprieve or become sufficiently well established in terms of the years it had been built that it would no longer be the target for the bulldozers. After all, wasn't this how such things worked in Mallorca?
Had the chalet been anyone else's, it might well have been reprieved. But it wasn't anyone else's. It was Eugenio's. A further pound of flesh was required in addition to the jail sentence. It became ground-zero chalet in a revenge attack. The demolition was symbolic restitution for the destruction of public confidence through the chain reaction of what Eugenio hadn't bargained for: the actions of anti-corruption prosecutors newly emboldened and supported by the national attorney-general. Matas, Munar, Ordinas, Nadal, Buils, many more have been burned by the firestorm that the prosecutors unleashed. And it was one whose source can be localised to protected land in Andratx. Ground zero.
Llorenç Suau is a mayoral descendant of Eugenio's. The current mayor of Andratx, he won't be re-standing. In October last year, Llorenç and two former mayors, Isabel Alemany and Francesc Femenias, were indicted to declare "in quality" by a Palma court looking into supposed irregularities surrounding the licence for developing car parking in Sant Elm, which just so happens to be the property of the Alemany family. Though not accused, Suau has opted against re-election as he supports the stance of his party, the PP, on not having candidates caught up in legal proceedings. He reckons, though, that whereas the presumption of innocence is a right for all citizens, it doesn't apply to politicians. There is now a presumption of guilt. And, sadly and generally speaking, he is right; sadly because it shouldn't be so and generally speaking because, notwithstanding attempts to clean up local politics, the public wants to believe in political crookedness.
For Llorenç, the problem is that there is someone whose guilt was proven. Eugenio's. Hidalgo is the cross that Andratx mayors have to bear. Llorenç knows this. Innocent or not innocent, the public smell urban planning indiscretions - real or not real - as acutely as they detect the burning of forest land. Their senses have been heightened by the Hidalgo-fallout and Tramuntana firestorms.
Elsewhere, and even with rules laid down by the PP regarding candidates, mayors are not as prepared as Llorenç to sacrifice themselves. Tomeu Cifre in Pollensa is one. Local rather than general party rules appear to apply to him. He has not been charged with any criminal offence, thus he can re-stand and, it should be noted, court documentation in respect of one accusation against him appears not to have been forthcoming from his accuser.
But perhaps mud sticks, regardless. Eugenio didn't build a house of corruption for mayors; it was there before him. What he did build, though, was an enduring edifice of perception, proven in and reinforced by the courts, that will not shift from public sight. Innocence, guilt. Who would be a mayor?
Who is to say that had the chalet not been demolished that it would not now be subject to "regularisation"? Many a property on Mallorca's rural land was granted an amnesty last year under the regional government's Ley de Suelo. The futures of some of these buildings would have been documented and stored in the pending trays of town halls or other authorities, some stamped in red with a threatening "denuncia", awaiting transmission to the courts. Their executions had been stayed at their death rows among bucolic greenery until one day came the pardon. Pay a suitable retribution and all will be forgiven. The bulldozers sighed. There was no work for them.
But the chalet I mention never had a chance. It had to be removed and to be levelled. It had to be restored as a place of natural habitat. There is no X to mark the spot of where it was. You wouldn't know it had ever been there. This was ground-zero chalet. There were strong political as well as legal reasons why all physical memory of it should have been expunged. This had been the chalet that Eugenio had built.
Eugenio Hidalgo, the one-time and now disgraced and imprisoned mayor of Andratx, was one of the unlucky ones. Unlucky because, though he engaged in widespread planning abuses and got sent to prison as a result, he might well have believed that, abuse or not, the chalet would eventually be given official reprieve or become sufficiently well established in terms of the years it had been built that it would no longer be the target for the bulldozers. After all, wasn't this how such things worked in Mallorca?
Had the chalet been anyone else's, it might well have been reprieved. But it wasn't anyone else's. It was Eugenio's. A further pound of flesh was required in addition to the jail sentence. It became ground-zero chalet in a revenge attack. The demolition was symbolic restitution for the destruction of public confidence through the chain reaction of what Eugenio hadn't bargained for: the actions of anti-corruption prosecutors newly emboldened and supported by the national attorney-general. Matas, Munar, Ordinas, Nadal, Buils, many more have been burned by the firestorm that the prosecutors unleashed. And it was one whose source can be localised to protected land in Andratx. Ground zero.
Llorenç Suau is a mayoral descendant of Eugenio's. The current mayor of Andratx, he won't be re-standing. In October last year, Llorenç and two former mayors, Isabel Alemany and Francesc Femenias, were indicted to declare "in quality" by a Palma court looking into supposed irregularities surrounding the licence for developing car parking in Sant Elm, which just so happens to be the property of the Alemany family. Though not accused, Suau has opted against re-election as he supports the stance of his party, the PP, on not having candidates caught up in legal proceedings. He reckons, though, that whereas the presumption of innocence is a right for all citizens, it doesn't apply to politicians. There is now a presumption of guilt. And, sadly and generally speaking, he is right; sadly because it shouldn't be so and generally speaking because, notwithstanding attempts to clean up local politics, the public wants to believe in political crookedness.
For Llorenç, the problem is that there is someone whose guilt was proven. Eugenio's. Hidalgo is the cross that Andratx mayors have to bear. Llorenç knows this. Innocent or not innocent, the public smell urban planning indiscretions - real or not real - as acutely as they detect the burning of forest land. Their senses have been heightened by the Hidalgo-fallout and Tramuntana firestorms.
Elsewhere, and even with rules laid down by the PP regarding candidates, mayors are not as prepared as Llorenç to sacrifice themselves. Tomeu Cifre in Pollensa is one. Local rather than general party rules appear to apply to him. He has not been charged with any criminal offence, thus he can re-stand and, it should be noted, court documentation in respect of one accusation against him appears not to have been forthcoming from his accuser.
But perhaps mud sticks, regardless. Eugenio didn't build a house of corruption for mayors; it was there before him. What he did build, though, was an enduring edifice of perception, proven in and reinforced by the courts, that will not shift from public sight. Innocence, guilt. Who would be a mayor?
Sunday, February 01, 2015
The Endemic Nature Of Corruption
Well, here's a surprise. A Partido Popular politician has admitted that corruption is "an endemic problem", this politician being Palma's mayor Mateo Isern. He wasn't, however, referring to his party, but to the local police. Isern's statement and his actions in having immediately suspended without pay certain officers facing corruption allegations contrast greatly with the equivocation in Calvia when there were arrests of officers there, though to be fair the allegations that relate to Playa de Palma do appear to be greater and involve more police than was the case in Magalluf. But for Isern to say that there is endemic corruption is quite an admission, one which, while it may be thought welcome, does makes one wonder how officers who are not corrupt might feel about such blanket an assertion.
As Isern will not be standing again as mayor, he may feel he can make such sweeping statements; he has nothing to lose by doing so, other perhaps than his reputation. But he has moved to salvage any potential damage to this by apologising for not having been able to detect these cases and by setting up an internal unit that will investigate "irregularities" and bequeath to his successor an "unpolluted police". One hopes that this is what emerges, but his observation that he (and so therefore others in the town hall) has been unable to do any detection leads one to ask why. Accusations of local police corruption in Playa de Palma, and in Magalluf, have been made over the years; not necessarily formally but certainly anecdotally. No smoke without fire and all that, some accusations will undoubtedly have been wild ones, but as there has at least been a sense that not everything was right, then some town-hall detective work had surely been called for. Endemic corruption, if this is indeed so, does not suddenly emerge. For it to be endemic, it has to have existed over a substantial period of time and to have become ingrained. It has taken the investigations of the National Police and the Guardia Civil to have finally exposed this endemism, but the very nature of such a culture should have been apparent to the town hall long before. Why was it not able?
As Isern will not be standing again as mayor, he may feel he can make such sweeping statements; he has nothing to lose by doing so, other perhaps than his reputation. But he has moved to salvage any potential damage to this by apologising for not having been able to detect these cases and by setting up an internal unit that will investigate "irregularities" and bequeath to his successor an "unpolluted police". One hopes that this is what emerges, but his observation that he (and so therefore others in the town hall) has been unable to do any detection leads one to ask why. Accusations of local police corruption in Playa de Palma, and in Magalluf, have been made over the years; not necessarily formally but certainly anecdotally. No smoke without fire and all that, some accusations will undoubtedly have been wild ones, but as there has at least been a sense that not everything was right, then some town-hall detective work had surely been called for. Endemic corruption, if this is indeed so, does not suddenly emerge. For it to be endemic, it has to have existed over a substantial period of time and to have become ingrained. It has taken the investigations of the National Police and the Guardia Civil to have finally exposed this endemism, but the very nature of such a culture should have been apparent to the town hall long before. Why was it not able?
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