Ben Pawlowski
TOP Spanish film director Pedro Almodovar has come out to bat for embattled prime minister Pedro Sanchez, describing allegations of rampant corruption in government ranks as an ‘orgy of fake news’.
The Academy Award and Goya Award-winning filmmaker joined almost a hundred public figures in signing a letter which rallied against the ‘conservative offensive’ against Sanchez, whose Socialist-led government is mired in allegations of sleaze.
Signatories for the letter include actress Ana Belen and musicians Joan Manuel Serrat, Victor Manuel and Miguel Rios, alongside a host of former Socialist party (PSOE) ministers including Manuel Chaves, Magdalena Alvarez and Joan Clos.
The message was also backed by former Catalan president Jose Montilla and writers Luis Garcia Montero and Rosa Montero.
“A very significant part of the media and social networks have unleashed an orgy of fake news or half-truths in order to create an unbearable political climate that is not in keeping with the situation in the country,” the letter reads.
It adds: “The attack, from all conservative and reactionary fronts, on the progressive coalition government and its president is more akin to a conspiracy to overthrow a legitimate government than to political criticism in a democratic system.”
The text also argues that ‘progress made by the coalition government in economic and social matters’ receives limited press coverage, which instead focuses on ‘attacks on migrants and the vandalism of left-wing party headquarters, which are reminiscent of the fascist attacks of the past’.
The letter also attacks the judiciary, reading: “Sectors of the judiciary are organising rallies and strikes, outside the law, against laws passed by Congress that they do not like – amnesty, justice reform – when the latter has not yet been approved.
“Judges and magistrates open lengthy investigations with flimsy evidence, while the opposition delegitimises the Constitutional Court because it does not agree with the ruling on amnesty.”
Sanchez’s government has been under fire since Santos Cerdan, his former right-hand man, was arrested last month on suspicion of bribery, criminal conspiracy and influence peddling in relation to a wider investigation into kickbacks on state contracts.
The case also implicates Jose Luis Abalos, a former minister.
In response to the allegations, the letter signed by Almodovar states: “It is evident that the alleged crimes by [Abalos and Cerdan] are serious and denote gross errors…However, it is unacceptable that a democratically elected government should fall because of a police report before a fully fair trial has been held in which the responsibility of the prime minister or the affected party is established.”
But efforts to force Sanchez to resign or call fresh elections have taken a blow after a new scandal struck the opposition party, Partido Popular (PP).
A judge has charged Cristobal Montoro, a former finance minister under the government of Mariano Rajoy, and 27 co-conspirators for ‘influence-peddling’.
Montoro is accused of exploiting his role atop the ministry to helm a network that rewrote tax laws to benefit gas companies in exchange for cash in the form of consulting fees.
Prosecutors estimate the scheme delivered a fiscal windfall – and deprived the Treasury – of roughly €2.2 billion in 2012 alone, while five major gas groups are said to have saved at least €51 million over the following decade.
Between 2014 and 2018, a firm owned by Montoro allegedly acted as a go-between for major gas companies and friendly officials in the Treasury Ministry that he was running.
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