President Rajoy still denying any charges

SPANISH president Mariano Rajoy openly discussed the Bárcenas slush-fund case.

The PP leader said he had ‘nothing to add’ to his previous comments – when he denied all claims of cash-in-hand wage top-ups being paid to high-flying party members, or bribes taken from companies in exchange for lucrative public works contracts.

Leader of UPyD, Rosa Díez, asked Rajoy whether this situation was what had pushed the PP into making the fiscal amnesty possible.

Rajoy responded: “No.”

Sra Díez said Rajoy had lied when he stated in the early days of his presidency that a bank bail-out using European funds would not form part of his economic reform, nor affect the country’s national debt, and that he would ‘not touch pensions’.

Rajoy said his party still had no intention of freezing pensions, that a new law was in the pipeline to guarantee pension payments in the future, and that the government’s top priority was ensuring the recovery of the Spanish economy.