scandal

A series of earthquakes measuring between 2 and 4.2 on the Richter scale have been affecting the coast of southernmost Catalonia and northernmost Valencia in the last few weeks but particularly since last weekend. All the evidence suggests that the Castor offshore gas reservoir is behind the earthquakes. In 2009, the Spanish Government approved the building of an underground gas reservoir located under the sea bed, some 20 kilometres offshore from the Ebro Delta and Vinarós, using the cavity in the rock from a former oil field. Madrid approved the project without an earthquake risk report, despite a formal petition from the Catalan Government. Now, geologists, the Spanish Industry Ministry and the company admit that the injection of gas into the rock could be triggering the earthquakes. Activities have been stopped and the Public Prosecutor’s Office is investigating the case.

Artur Mas, the President of the Catalan Government, challenged the opposition parties to present a vote of no-confidence if they want him to step down. Mas, who leads the Centre-Right Catalan Nationalist Coalition (CiU) and the Liberal party CDC, emphasised that CDC has been investigated “until the last millimetre” and the judge has not indicted any party leader or member of the Catalan Executive. He explained that the party’s finance management team and its political leadership have been separated since the late 1990s. The Catalan President insisted he believes in the word given by the party treasurer, who has been indicted by the judge. However, he guaranteed that, if the trial proves that CDC received any illegal money, the party “will return up to the last cent” and will take full responsibility for it. The opposition considered the explanations to be insufficient and demanded resignations if the corruption case is finally proven.

In February, the offices of the private detective company Método 3 in Barcelona were searched by the Spanish Police, who brought to court many documents and computers in order to start a thorough investigation on political espionage in Catalonia. The case is affecting the People’s Party (PP), the Centre-Right Catalan Nationalist Coalition (CiU) and the Catalan Socialist Party (PSC). The judicial investigation is still ongoing, but much of the information – most of the time contradictory – has been leaked in the past few months. The case’s main focus is the recording of a private conversation at a Barcelona restaurant between the leader of the Catalan PP, Alícia Sánchez-Camacho, and the former girlfriend of the oldest son of the CiU’s historical leader, Jordi Pujol. Who is behind the recording is still a mystery, but some voices have pointed towards the PP, the CiU or the PSC. However, the PSC is the first one to have one of its members indicted.

The day after the judge ended his investigation and stated he believed the governing party Convergència Democràtica de Catalunya (CDC) had earned 5.1 million in an influence peddling case, the party’s leader and President of the Catalan Government, Artur Mas, talked in front of the Catalan Parliament. Mas stated that the judge’s suspicions about CDC were “not proved” and he underlined the trial had not started yet. The Catalan President said he believed in the word of the party members involved in the scandal. However, he also stated that, if at the end the suspicions are backed up with proofs, he “will be the first one to act” as the party leader. The opposition parties asked Mas for further explanations.

CDC fully denies the accusations. The judge investigating one of the major corruption scandals in Catalonia, the so-called ‘Palau’ case, has finished the four-year investigation and now the trial can start. The judge accuses Convergència Democràtica de Catalunya (CDC) – the Liberal party within the governing Centre-Right Catalan Nationalist Coalition CiU – of having illicitly received €5.1 million from the construction company Ferrovial through donations made to Barcelona’s Palau de la Música concert hall. The judge believes the money was allegedly given in exchange for the allocation of public work contracts. The former treasurer of CDC and a former Catalan MP, as well as two managers of Ferrovial are accused. In addition, the judge will also bring to trial the main managers of the Palau de la Música, Fèlix Millet and Jordi Montull. Millet and Montull are also accused of having stolen €26 million from the cultural organisation.

Following a petition by the Spanish Public Prosecutor Office, the judge has called Germà Gordó, the Catalan Minister of Justice, to testify as witness in the alleged influence peddling case of the allocation of licenses to technical vehicle inspection garages. This case affects the ‘Number 3’ of the governing Centre-Right Catalan Nationalist Coalition (CiU), Oriol Pujol, since the Supreme Court of Catalonia (TSJ) suspects he could have participated in irregular allocation of these licenses. At the time the alleged incidents happened, Gordó was not the Justice Minister but the Secretary of the Catalan Government, a key position overseeing all the daily decisions of the Executive. The TSJ wants to hear Gordó’s version of the tender procedure. Besides, Pujol’s defence has called the former Catalan Business Minister as a witness, since his department was running the tender.

Xavier García Albiol, the Mayor of Badalona – Catalonia’s third largest city and attached to Barcelona – will go on trial accused of the felonies of provocation of hate, discrimination and violence as well as of collective provocative slander. In 2010, before the last municipal elections, García Albiol distributed leaflets that allegedly related Romanian immigrants to crime. During the electoral campaign, he mostly focused his speech on fighting crime and stopping “illegal immigration”. The campaign created a huge controversy in Catalonia and García Albiol was the most voted-for candidate, although with far from an absolute majority. He became the Mayor of Badalona and for the first time ever the People’s Party obtained the mayorship of one of Catalonia’s top 20 most populated cities.

The Supreme Court of Catalonia (TSJC) has indicted Oriol Pujol, who is the ‘number three’ of the CiU – who run the Catalan Government – over a case of influence peddling regarding an irregular public tender for technical vehicle inspection garages. After his indictment was announced, Pujol “delegated” his party and parliamentary roles as Secretary General of CDC – the Liberal and largest force within the two-party coalition CiU – and as Chairman of the CiU group in the Catalan Parliament. However, Pujol explained that he would not resign as an MP, as it would be “out of proportion”. The Catalan politician insisted that he was innocent and he hoped justice would act quickly. The opposition has displayed a divided reaction: some parties have left it to the CiU to decide whether Pujol’s decision was enough while others heavily criticised him continuing as an MP.

Catalonia’s Supreme Court (TSJC) has announced the indictment of Daniel Fernández, a Member of the Catalan Parliament and Organisation Secretary in the Catalan Socialist Party (PSC). Fernández has resigned from his party and Parliamentary positions, but he will continue to be an MP while waiting to find out whether he will go on trial in the end. The High Court believed there to be signs that Fernández could have committed a felony of influence peddling by participating in the irregular hiring process of a manager in one of Greater Barcelona’s municipalities. The anti-corruption prosecutor and the judges investigating the so-called ‘Mercuri’ case, dealing with municipal corruption in Greater Barcelona mostly affecting members of the PSC, asked for Fernández’s indictment to the TSJC since he is an MP.

A few hours earlier, the Swiss bank Lombard Odier stated that the Catalan presidents Artur Mas and Jordi Pujol do not have any relationship with the company. The Spanish nationalist newspaper ‘El Mundo’ published a report 9 days before the Catalan elections, with the official stamp of the Spanish Police on it, accusing the incumbent President of the Catalan Government, and candidate for re-election from the Centre-Right Catalan Nationalist Coalition (CiU), Artur Mas, of having secret accounts in Switzerland. The fake report also incriminated Mas’ family, the former Catalan President Jordi Pujol and two of Pujol’s sons. The report completely altered the election campaign. Now, four months after the report was issued, the Catalan Government has demanded a public rectification since some Spanish Ministers and leading members of the People’s Party validated the report at the time.

After holding the second high-level meeting with top representatives from all the public powers involved in the fight against corruption and fraud in Catalonia, the Catalan President, Artur Mas, presented a document setting out a list of measures. The document takes into account suggestions and comments by all the attending public powers, but it is not a joint text issued by all the participants, Mas emphasised, as it is only signed by the President of the Catalan Government. An initial meeting was organised on the 6th of February to exchange views and gather ideas. The listed measures relate to transparency, public contracts, judicial capacities, political parties, control bodies and democratic regeneration.

The President of the Catalan Government, Artur Mas, organised a summit with top representatives from all the public powers involved in the fight against corruption and fraud to exchange ideas and come up with a set of measures. Political parties were not invited and some of them have protested. After the meeting, Mas explained that the attendees agreed to transform the Transparency Agreement from 2001 regarding the funding of political parties into a law in order to enforce it. Furthermore, the Catalan Government will allocate more resources to the judicial powers investigating the main corruption cases. The attendees agreed to compile the initiatives discussed in a document and meet again in two weeks’ time.

Oriol Pujol, the Secretary General of the CDC, the Liberal party within the Centre-Right Catalan Nationalist Coalition (CiU), “fully denies” the accusations and hopes he will not finally be indicted. However, he stated that “nobody within the CiU will be an obstacle to Catalonia’s self-determination process”, indicating that if he is formally accused of influence peddling in the end, he might temporarily step down from the political front-line. The anti-corruption prosecutor suspects that Pujol participated in the plot to irregularly allocate licenses for technical vehicle inspection garages. After the President of the Catalan Government, Artur Mas, and the leader of the Christian-Democrat side of the CiU, Josep Antoni Duran i Lleida, Oriol Pujol is the coalition’s ‘number 3’ and Chairman of the CiU’s group in the Catalan Parliament.

The President of the Catalan Government and leader of the Centre-Right Catalan Nationalist Coalition (CiU) is organising a summit to define new initiatives against corruption. The meeting will be held next week and will gather together the main representatives of the Catalan Parliament, the Supreme Court of Justice of Catalonia, the Catalan Ombudsman, the Catalan Court of Audit and the Anti-Fraud Office of Catalonia. Political parties are not invited, as the summit is thought to be “complementary” to Parliament’s actions. The Catalan President will ask the attendees to provide him with ideas so that he can channel them and put them on the table for a wider debate. In the last few months, many corruption scandals have affected politicians in Catalonia and the rest of Spain.

The incumbent President of the Catalan Government and the main CiU candidate, Artur Mas, is asking for massive support in order to have the strength to negotiate the organisation of an independence referendum. The CiU is focusing the re-election campaign on the self-determination process, heading away from the unpopular budget cuts it has been implementing over the last two years. The CiU is currently Catalonia’s largest party, running most of the public offices. It has 62 MPs in the 135-seat Parliament and gained 38.43% of the votes in the 2010 elections. Polls give them between 61 and 71 seats, in the best scenario obtaining an absolute majority. However, the CiU campaign has been completely derailed nine days before the elections by the Spanish nationalist newspaper El Mundo, which accused Mas and other top CiU leaders of corruption. These accusations turned out to be false and Mas is now accusing the Spanish Government of playing dirty tricks.