{"id":272925,"date":"2025-07-18T20:23:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T20:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/272925\/"},"modified":"2025-07-18T20:23:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T20:23:09","slug":"spains-peoples-party-hit-by-alleged-multimillion-cash-for-favours-scandal-spain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/272925\/","title":{"rendered":"Spain\u2019s People\u2019s party hit by alleged multimillion cash-for-favours scandal | Spain"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just when Spain\u2019s opposition People\u2019s party thought it had the socialist government of Pedro S\u00e1nchez on the ropes over a series of corruption scandals, it has been hit by a controversy of its own over alleged trafficking of influences by Crist\u00f3bal Montoro, the former finance minister.<\/p>\n

It is alleged that Montoro established the \u201ceconomic team\u201d, a lawyer\u2019s office linked to the finance ministry, which took kickbacks from gas and other energy companies in return for favourable government policy. It is claimed that between 2008 and 2015 Montoro and 27 other accused, among them senior treasury officials, were paid at least \u20ac11m (\u00a39.5m) by big energy companies.<\/p>\n

According to the police investigation led by the judge Rub\u00e9n Rus, \u201cthe economic team received large commissions in return for its capacity to influence legislative and executive powers\u201d under the government of the then prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, adding that \u201cthe office was merely a vehicle to access the finance ministry\u201d.<\/p>\n

In his report the judge commented that gas companies \u201ctried to influence legislation in accordance with their interests by using various lobbies but without success\u201d and were only successful when the go-between was Montoro\u2019s economic team.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithin a short period of time and for no apparent reason they obtained the desired legislative reforms,\u201d principally in the form of lower tax liabilities, it concluded.<\/p>\n

It is also alleged that Montoro personally accessed the confidential tax records of political rivals in his own party, among them Esperanza Aguirre, the former president of Madrid, as well as several journalists and celebrities, including the tennis star Rafael Nadal, the art collector and socialite Carmen Thyssen and Jordi Pujol Ferrusola, the son of the former Catalan president Jordi Pujol, who was under investigation for corruption.<\/p>\n

It is said that Rajoy was warned about Montoro\u2019s activities but no action was taken.<\/p>\n

Montoro resigned from the PP on Thursday and issued a statement saying \u201cthere is no proof of any of the accusations\u201d.<\/p>\n

The allegations are a blow to the strategy of the PP leader, Alberto Feij\u00f3o, which has consisted of a relentless attack on S\u00e1nchez whose party is being investigated<\/a> over a series of corruption charges.<\/p>\n

Feij\u00f3o said the revelations did not change his view that corruption must be rooted out, whoever is involved. \u201cWhat needs to be investigated must be investigated,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Pablo Sim\u00f3n, a political scientist at the Universidad Carlos III in Madrid, said: \u201cThis gives S\u00e1nchez a breathing space but it\u2019s not the end of it as more is likely to emerge from the judicial investigations. This levels the playing field and it\u2019s also a blow to Feij\u00f3o\u2019s strategy as it puts him on the defensive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sim\u00f3n said the latest scandal would reinforce the view of many voters that Spain\u2019s political parties, both left and right, were irredeemably corrupt. The only beneficiaries, he said, would be the far-right Vox party which, having never been in power, could claim to have clean hands.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s analogous to what happened in Portugal after the scandals involving the socialist and then the conservative governments which benefited the far-right party there,\u201d Sim\u00f3n said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just when Spain\u2019s opposition People\u2019s party thought it had the socialist government of Pedro S\u00e1nchez on the ropes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272926,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5312],"tags":[2000,299,104],"class_list":{"0":"post-272925","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spain","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-spain"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114876109130279336","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272925\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}