Spain's Rajoy faces lawmakers over corruption scandal

By Andr?s Gonz?lez

MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy appeared in parliament early on Thursday to testify about his alleged involvement in a corruption scandal that is undermining the authority of his ruling People's Party (PP).

Luis Barcenas, a former treasurer of the party jailed on bribery and tax evasion charges, told a judge he collected millions of euros in cash donations from construction magnates and distributed them to senior PP figures including Rajoy.

While the scandal has damaged Rajoy's credibility and eroded voter support for the PP, he is expected to hold on to power because the party has a strong majority in parliament.

Rajoy, who together with other leaders of the center-right party has denied wrongdoing, was due to appear before the lower house shortly after 0700 GMT (3 a.m ET).

One issue lawmakers will probably want clarified is why Rajoy and the party maintained close ties with Barcenas after the former treasurer was first accused of corruption in 2009 in a judicial investigation.

Barcenas had accumulated up to 48 million euros in Swiss bank accounts during the 30 years he worked for the PP, most of them as a manager handling party accounts.

He left the party in 2009, but the PP paid his legal defense fees and also continued to pay him a hefty monthly stipend under a deferred severance pay plan.

Rajoy has acknowledged he continued to exchange text messages with Barcenas up to earlier this year when details about the Swiss bank accounts emerged.

Rajoy agreed to testify before lawmakers after opposition parties threatened to call a vote of no confidence in order to force him to take their questions.

The prime minister's office said Rajoy will also take the opportunity on Thursday to discuss Spain's economy, which the government says is beginning to recover after five years of stagnation and recession.

Spaniards believe corruption to be the country's most serious problem after unemployment, polls show, and Spain's main political parties have lost significant ground to smaller ones thought to be more honest.

In a Metroscopia poll of 1,000 voters published on Sunday, 90 percent said they thought Rajoy was only taking questions because he had been forced to do so by opposition parties, and 89 percent said they did not believe his answers would clarify what had happened.

Thursday's televised hearing takes place in the chambers of parliament's upper house.

(Writing by Fiona Ortiz; Editing by John Stonestreet)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/spains-rajoy-faces-lawmakers-over-corruption-scandal-071225328.html

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