Opposition in Spain wants the resignation of Mariano Rajoy

Luis Bárcenas

Last Sunday, the Spanish opposition leaders called for the resignation of the current Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, after a newspaper published two messages of former treasurer of his party, when he was accused of making secret payments to various politicians among those Rajoy.

The scandal of the alleged secret payments within the members of the Partido Popular (PP) affected his acceptance rate. A report published by the newspaper El Mundo showed text messages that revealed that after a period of three years, between Rajoy and the PP former treasurer, Luis Barcenas, was a key figure in the financial division of the organization for two decades.

Barcenas was jailed in June and awaits his trial on charges of money laundering, as reported by El Mundo last week, adding that the party has been funded illegally for a long time.

El Mundo published documents that seem as pages from an accounting book, claiming to be genuine and supposedly show the name of Rajoy alongside great amounts of money paid. This similarity between the books has led many supporters and opposition leaders to believe the story.

For his part, Rajoy and his party members deny having committed any improper actions, but the accusations continue to affect Spain, whose population faces tough austerity measures and serious economic reforms to reduce the public debt within a 27% unemployment.