"Shamelessness" invades Spanish political life (News Feature)

By Sinikka Tarvainen Mar 17, 2009, 13:12 GMT

Madrid - Tailor Jose Tomas allegedly used to take suit measurements of Francisco Camps at Madrid's Hotel Ritz.

The Valencian regional prime minister stayed at the luxury hotel whenever he came to Spain's capital, Tomas told the daily El Pais.

He wanted his suits to be perfect, and Tomas even ordered a special elastic pleat for a pair of trousers from Italy.

An intermediary allegedly acting on behalf of bribe-paying companies paid for most of the suits, which were worth up to 1,200 euros (1,550 dollars) apiece, with 500-euro bills, Tomas said.

Camps denied the report as 'lies,' saying he paid for his own suits. His conservative People's Party (PP) rallied behind him.

In any case, the report published by the reputable newspaper reveals a lot about the potential for corruption, ostentation and what one commentator called 'shamelessness' in Spanish politics.

Camps is one among more than 40 suspects in a judicial corruption investigation affecting the PP, Spain's biggest opposition party.

Some of the party's representatives are suspected of accepting tens of millions of euros in kickbacks in exchange for awarding lucrative contracts and illegal building permits in municipalities or regions they governed.

While the media continued reporting on Camps, the PP-controlled Madrid regional parliament hurriedly wrapped up an investigation into alleged spying between regional officials and other PP members engaged in fierce power struggles.

The investigating commission denied any wrongdoing by the regional government, prompting the left-wing opposition to accuse regional Prime Minister Esperanza Aguirre of manipulating the probe in a massive cover-up.

Instead of shocking Spaniards, however, such suspicions earned Aguirre a certain admiration for her 'nerve,' commentator Jose Maria Izquierdo observed.

'Her many propaganda mongers and those owing her favours want to turn her into the heroine of a funny operetta, merry, jaunty - a real raver,' Izquierdo wrote.

The PP was Tuesday preparing new moves to cleanse its reputation, after lodging a complaint against the judge investigating the corruption allegations and expelling many of the suspects from the party.

However, the 'cancer' of corruption - as commentators have called it - is by no means limited to the conservatives.

In one recent case, a mayor belonging to Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's Socialist Party was detained over illegal building permits in Alcaucin in the south.

'Mayors of all parties are accused corruption, jailed amid the tears, cheers and applause (of their supporters), and... are re- elected, even increasing their support,' author and journalist Rosa Maria Artal wrote on Tuesday.

'A large part of Spaniards admires whoever gets rich, no matter how it is done,' she observed.

In one such case, the entire city council of the glitzy seaside resort of Marbella was replaced after massive sleaze was uncovered there in 2006.

Police seized goods worth billions of euros, including a stuffed elephant, 100 horses, a helicopter and a luxury villa.

Corruption cases were long linked mainly to the booming property sector, but its recent meltdown is unlikely to drastically alter the frequent perception of politics as primarily a source of personal benefit, analysts said.

'Politicians talk about the common good, because they cannot frankly tell voters that they want to become rich and powerful,' a lawyer with political connections said.

Spanish corruption is rooted in past centuries, when only cunning could help the poor survive in a rigid class society, Artal said.

Others attribute the phenomenon to the immaturity of Spain's modern democracy, which was established only after the death of dictator Francisco Franco in 1975.

Some Spanish politicians were still seen as 'bosses' rather than democratically elected representatives of the people, El Pais observed in an editorial.