SPAIN
Campaign against opposition "Spain's Watergate Affair"
Spain is in the middle of a political scandal. With a dirt campaign, the
former government wanted to harm the opposition - also through the
spread of fake news.
Political Spain is shaken by a scandal that is unparalleled: The
conservative government under ex-Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy had
launched in recent years, dirt campaigns to discredit political
opponents - paid with tax money. As it has now become known, ministries
have spread fake news about it and some newspapers have played along. A
goal of the then government: Left parties should by no means come to
power.
"Cloaks of the Ministry of the Interior"
Spanish media use an expression for the political campaigns to
illustrate how dirty and immoral they were: "Sewer of the Ministry of
the Interior". The Madrid political scientist Pablo Simón even speaks of
Spain's possibly most important political scandal and compares it with
the "Watergate Affair" in the 1970s in the US.
As with "Watergate", this is also about the abuse of power of a
government - specifically the conservative ones Government under Prime
Minister Rajoy, who was in office between late 2011 and mid-2018. The
Ministry of the Interior and various media launched joint campaigns:
they brought fake news into circulation, especially to harm the
left-wing party Podemos. That came to light in a committee of inquiry of
the Spanish Parliament.
Target of the campaign: Podemos harm
"The Ministry of the Interior wanted to establish a direct link between
Podemos and Venezuelan ex-government under Hugo Chavez, especially on
financing issues, as some of the leading Podemos members previously
served as consultants to Chavez," said political scientist Simón. The
goal was to damage the reputation of Podemos, so that the party does not
come to the government.
An envoy from the Spanish Ministry of the Interior is said to have
offered protection to a Venezuelan ex-minister. In return, this should
claim that Hugo Chavez have paid seven million euros to Podemos. A
decisive role played in the campaigns apparently also corrupt officials
of the Spanish police.
The online newspaper "El Confidencial" has published a clip of a secret
meeting in New York between former government officials from Venezuela
and Spanish police officials. A commissioner said there, "If you help us
that Podemos is not coming ... Damn it, that would be best for all of
us!"
The boss of Podemos, Pablo Iglesias, speaks of incredible events. "So
in Spain, a group of police officers can take a plane on their own and
promise ex-ministers from another country money and a false identity."
You can not believe it. "
Scandal shortly before the parliamentary election
The current socialist government of Spain assures that there are no more
"sewers" in the ministries. All key positions were exchanged following
the takeover last summer. No one has ever commented on the scandal by
the government of that time.
Just over three weeks before the Spanish parliamentary election, the
conservative party PP would certainly have waived such news. But even if
the whole thing should have the level of the "Watergate affair" -
political scientist Simón does not believe that it harms the
Conservatives significantly. "There is a large electorate that
vehemently opposes Podemos." She saw these developments as not really
bad, but as something that had to be done. "It's very hard to say that,
but it's no scandal for the conservative electorate in Spain," said
Simón.
The legal work has begun and the prosecutor's office has already made it
clear: you see no evidence that money from Venezuela to the party
Podemos flowed.
Iglesias' party Podemos should be targeted in the run-up to the elections.
