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Two former Spanish PMs to testify at slush fund trial

Two former Spanish prime ministers will testify as witnesses later this month in an illegal funding scandal centred on the rightwing Popular Party (PP), a court said Friday.

Two former Spanish PMs to testify at slush fund trial
Former Prime Ministers Jose Maria Aznar (L) and Mariano Rajoy (R) will testify in court on March 24th. Photo: Sagrario Cagigas/AFP

Mariano Rajoy, who was premier from 2011-2018, and Jose Maria Aznar, who served from 1996-2004, are scheduled to testify on March 24 in a trial focused on an alleged system of parallel bookkeeping used by the PP to manage undeclared funds.

The accounts were run by Luis Barcenas, who served as the PP treasurer between 1990 and 2009 during which time first Aznar and then Rajoy led the party.

The high-profile trial opened on February 8 at the National Court in Madrid and will run until May.

For nearly 20 years, the alleged slush fund was fed by donations from businessmen and used to pay bonuses to PP leaders and collaborators.

It also funded the renovation of the party’s Madrid headquarters, Barcenas has said.

Rajoy has always denied any knowledge of the system, although Barcenas has testified he was “perfectly aware” of it, telling the court last week that he was one of those who received envelopes of cash in the period before he became premier.

READ ALSO: Spain’s former PM ‘was paid illegal bonuses’, trial hears

“I gave them an envelope containing the amount they were owed,” he said, identifying the recipients as eight senior PP figures, among them Rajoy.

Details of the accounts emerged in the so-called “Barcenas papers” which were first published by El Pais newspaper in 2013.

Barcenas himself is currently serving a 29-year sentence over the so-called Gurtel case which centred on a vast system of bribes given to former PP officials in exchange for juicy public contracts between 1999 and 2005.

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POLITICS

Spain’s Catalonia sets clock ticking for possible fresh polls

The speaker of Catalonia's parliament said Wednesday he will give the Spanish region's assembly two months to form a new government or else he will push for new elections.

Spain's Catalonia sets clock ticking for possible fresh polls

No party secured an absolute majority in Catalonia’s 135-seat parliament in a May 12th regional vote in the wealthy northeastern region, which saw separatist parties lose their governing majority in the body they had dominated for the past decade.

The local branch of Spain’s ruling Socialists, led by Salvador Illa, won the biggest share of the vote giving it 42 seats, while hardline separatist party JxCat – headed by exiled former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont – finished second with 35 seats.

The regional Catalan parliament had until June 25th to vote on a new government but neither Illa nor Puigdemont decided to present themselves to an investiture vote in the assembly as they had not secured enough backing from other parties to be successful and preferred to keep negotiating.

So the speaker of the Catalan parliament, Josep Rull of JxCat, on Wednesday set a two-month deadline for parties to agree on a new head of the regional government, otherwise a fresh election will be held – most likely in mid-October.

“After consultations with the parties, none have proposed a candidate to go through the presidential investiture debate by the first deadline,” he said.

“However, two of these parliamentary groups have expressed their willingness to explore ways to build an agreement to make the investiture possible over the next two months.”

To win the support of an absolute majority of 68 lawmakers of the Catalan parliament, Illa will need to secure the backing of the more moderate separatist party ERC which won 20 seats in the May election.

The ERC helps prop up Socialist Prime Pedro Sánchez’s minority government in the national parliament but its demands for regional financing so far seem too steep for Illa’s party.

Puigdemont is also courting the ERC but even with their support, as well of that of two other smaller separatist parties – the far-left CUP and the far-right Alianca Catalana – he will still fall short of the required 68 seats to enable him to pass an investiture vote.

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