Spain's politicians don't help themselves when they help themselves

Spain's PM is being forced to deny allegations of corruption

Allegations that Mariano Rajoy, Spain’s Prime Minister, has accepted secret payments to a slush fund sparked minor protests over the weekend as Spaniards took to the streets in the country’s largest cities to demand that their leader resign.

Following a campaign by the El Pais newspaper – in which it published ledgers purporting to show payments made to members of the Popular Party (PP) that governs Spain – an online petition calling for Rajoy’s resignation gathered more than 740,000 signatures.

“I have never received nor distributed undeclared money,” said Rajoy in a statement as he vowed not to resign. El Pais’ allegations, however, claim that Mr. Rajoy was paid €25,200 each year between 1997 and 2008.

Despite the protests that were held in Sevilla, Madrid and Barcelona – where people took to the streets carrying banners calling the PP ‘The shame of Spain’ – Rajoy and other party members remained steadfast in their denials of the allegations.

El Pais has claimed that it has seen photographs of secret ledgers controlled by former treasurers Luis Barcenas and Alvaro Lapuerta. Firms filtered payments via Mr. Barcenas’ Swiss bank account to the PP, alleges the newspaper.

While Rajoy fights the claims, Spaniards’ anger stems not just from the alleged corruption and hypocrisy – millions are being forced to accept painful austerity measures by a government keen to stave off an international bailout – but from the continued negative perception other countries have of Spain.

As the eurozone crisis drags on, fellow European nations will not be slow in attacking any perceived weakness in their neighbours’ economies, ethics or societies. For the Greeks it is that they are lazy; for the Irish incompetent; the Italians are widely considered to be chauvinistic.

Spaniards, for their part, do not want their country to be perceived as a corrupt land. And as the old adage ‘no smoke without fire’ proves, foreign eyes will have already made up their mind, despite the equally prescient ‘innocent until proven guilty’.

Rajoy, for now, denies the allegations and hopes to carry on regardless. But even if he and his party are proved innocent, one of his most pressing tasks will be to convince international observers that the Spanish government is doing all it can to stamp out corruption.