Guilty or not guilty? Months of denial, then at the last
moment, as all the doors of escape close one by one, a change of plea and an
admission of guilt. This has often been the pattern of events in British political
life, the latest example being ex-cabinet minister, Chris Huhne, admitting
finally that he lied over a driving offence and “perverted the course of
justice”. It seems even his own son had been telling him from the very start to
own up.
In Britain,
at least, political careers rarely survive the revelation of a lie: John
Profumo had no future after lying to the House of Commons over his relationship
with Christine Keeler. Jonathan Aitken’s famous “sword of truth” with which he
proclaimed his innocence over allegations of shady arms deals, turned into what
one TV headline called “The Dagger of Deceit” after his eventual
conviction for perjury.
Now the
credibility of politicians across Europe seems to be in serious doubt, as
accusations and suspicions stack up in France, Greece, Italy and Spain. With
Chris Huhne awaiting a likely judicial sentence this week in London, his lie
exposed, we may cast a thought towards the head of the Spanish government,
Mariano Rajoy, and his “Es falso” declaration of the last week. This forthright
denial came in response to allegations that he, along with many other senior
members of his Partido Popular, received undeclared payments from a secret fund
administered by an ex-treasurer of the party, Luís Bárcenas, who himself is
accused of having secreted millions of euros in a Swiss bank account.
As the Financial
Times puts it bluntly, ‘This bombshell could hardly have detonated at a
worse time, with a population facing record unemployment and unprecedented
austerity, and already infuriated by a string of corruption scandals … ” The
most damning statement of the paper’s editorial is to declare that the country
is fighting its way through a major economic crisis “at a time when nearly all
its institutions, from the monarchy to the judiciary, exhibit signs of rot.” (FT,
February 3, 2013)
Looking through a recent Sunday
edition of El País ‒ the newspaper leading the way in exposing the
Bárcenas affair ‒ you could see pages 8 to 20 of the domestic coverage
dedicated entirely to reporting on one financial scandal after another. Soon
afterwards, the supposedly incriminating ‘Bárcenas papers’ filled an entire
Sunday supplement which sold out rapidly. It seems that political journalism in
Spain has been reduced to uncovering corruption after corruption, all ongoing
for months, if not years, and all referred to in shorthand: el caso X, el
caso Y, el caso Z … One gets the impression that the abuse of public
position in order to line one’s pockets has for a very long time been an accepted
perk of the job.
Institutionalised abuse of a
similar kind, in the union-dominated newspaper print world of Fleet Street,
used to be called “Spanish practices” for no obvious reason at the time. But
such abuse became so engrained and customary that it led to the total collapse
of the system. The abuse rendered the institutions unworkable and
unsustainable.
This indeed seems to be where
Spain has got to with its own Spanish practices. Writing in the same edition,
political consultant José Ignacio Torreblanca says: “The political pact between
elected and electors which sustains our democracy, has broken, and as a result,
is unworkable.” And he calls for a major overhaul of public thinking, mindset
and customs in order for the country to face up collectively to the challenge.
It does
seem that public perception in Spain of their elected representatives has
reached an all time low in the democratic period since the 1960s. Rajoy and his
government currently enjoy only a 23 percent approval rating. A recent survey
from Metroscopia suggests that 73 percent of the general public think the
country is on the verge of breakdown through unemployment and poverty. 97
percent say that they have no confidence in the political institutions.
After six years of economic hardship, tens of
thousands of young people are desperate to leave the country and find
employment elsewhere in Europe, dozens of local town halls are bankrupt and
unable to pay their employees, and banks are repossessing thousands of homes in
a general collapse of the housing market.
This seems to be economics, and
politics, gone mad. Austerity at work? No, austerity that doesn’t work. The
social cost is enormous and will last for a generation or more. One can only
hope that out of the impending seismic shift will come a new order and a new
pact of trust and understanding between government and people.
CJM
Bilbao, February, 2013
The caption below announces: 'A British ex-minister resigns after lying over a traffic fine.' The laughing faces are a broad selection of Spanish politicians, bankers and other prominent people in public life, including the royal family. Nearly all of those shown here have been touched in some way by various recent scandals.
