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A few weeks before the celebration of Women’s Day, a scandal of possible corruption of the Socialist Party in the Government has exploded in Spain. Around twenty deputies are allegedly involved in a scheme including bribery, prostitution, drugs and orgies in hotels that, to top it all, would have taken place during the months of lockdown.
The case, which began with a denounce by a businessman from the Canary Islands for fraud, escalated to a national scandal with the resignation and subsequent arrest of the socialist deputy Juan Bernardo Fuentes, nicknamed “Uncle Berni”, accused of being the ringleader of an alleged “perfectly defined and coordinated criminal plot” by which businessmen would have made payments in money and in-kind – drugs, prostitutes by catalog, dinners in luxury restaurants, etc. – in exchange for receiving political perks or getting rid of inspections and audits.
Until then, the case only seemed to be a regional problem, when the intermediary Antonio Navarro Tacoronte – known as the “mediator” – was arrested a little over a year ago on charges of swindling. The detainee decided that he would not go down alone and, in exchange for a deal, agreed to inform the alleged corrupt politicians with whom he had dealt in order to obtain favors for the businessmen.
In just one of the devices handed over by the “mediator,” there would be up to 60 gigabytes of information, including photographs, audio, and videos of orgies allegedly involving almost a third of the male deputies of the Socialist Party who, ironically, had made radical feminism one of their banners.
So far, 12 people have been arrested, including the mediator, a deputy, a general director of an autonomous administration, a general of the Civil Guard and eight businessmen for, according to the court order, “rational indications of criminality of a corruption crime, such as bribery, influence peddling, falsehood and membership of an organized group, which would have been carried out within a criminal organization”; but the number of people involved could increase as the “mediator” is revealing details of the activities that could have been taking place since at least 2020.
It so happens that some of these alleged bacchanals of socialists paid for by the businessmen would have taken place in the middle of the lockdown. While Spaniards were locked up in their homes, forced to close their businesses, and accused of little less than killing their grandparents if they did not comply with the onerous measures against COVID, the very socialist and very feminist deputies of PSOE were celebrating orgies with prostitutes chosen by catalog, cocaine in abundance and Viagra in handfuls in hotels with entire floors reserved for their parties.
The irony does not end there, this corruption scheme allegedly started just after the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party came to power following a motion of censure that expelled the conservative party from government amid accusations of corruption.
Three years after the world was brought to a standstill by the pandemic, the shadowy maneuvers of many governments in different parts of the world are coming to light, which apparently saw in COVID the perfect opportunity to do what they do best: lie and take advantage of their citizens.
Ignacio Manuel García Medina, Business Management teacher. Artist and lecturer specialized in Popular Culture for various platforms. Presenter of the program "Pop Libertario" for the Juan de Mariana Institute. Lives in the Canary Islands, Spain // Ignacio M. García Medina es profesor de Gestión de Empresas. Es miembro del Instituto Juan de Mariana y conferenciante especializado en Cultura Popular e ideas de la Libertad.
Social Networks: @ignaciomgm