THE ECONOMIST ESPRESSO

Corruption in Spain

Today the prime minister will appear as a court witness in a case relating to kickbacks allegedly received by officials from his conservative People’s party, during a construction boom that preceded the pop of a monumental property bubble in 2008. Mariano Rajoy was once nicknamed Spain’s “plasma prime minister”, after holding a video press conference in which he avoided questions about fraud within his party. Once again his lawyers tried to have him testify — as a Spanish citizen this time, rather than government or party leader — via video conference. No luck.