🫵 This Week in Spain: Peak Whataboutism

Also Catalan elections, Camilla does Spain, and Letizia's naughty insta account.

Mar 14, 2024

By @IanMount and @AdrianBono | March 14, 2024 | Madrid | Issue #48

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🥜 This Week in a Nutshell: Corruption cases galore! Things have been getting so bad this week that it’s hard to keep up. Basically, both the PP and PSOE MPs have been accusing each other non-stop of corruption in Parliament. Who’s more corrupt? You decide! Also, the amnesty bill has been passed in Congress this afternoon (and this is why we’re late!)

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The plot thickens (like, a lot)

😠🗯️😡 Madrid Mask-Scandal Mudslinging Goes Mach 5 Medieval After Ayuso’s Partner Is Accused of Tax Fraud

Didn’t think a COVID-era mask-selling scandal could convert Spain’s entire political class into a mass of poo-throwing school children? Well it can…and it has!

The Target of the Week is…Madrid regional president Isabel Díaz Ayuso’s boyfriend of 3 years (give or take), Alberto González Amador (aka Albert González Lover, his real last name).
So what did he do? Prosecutors have hit Alberto, who has long worked as a health industry consultant, with charges that he faked business expenses to avoid €350,000 in taxes over several windfall years (2020 and 2021) during which he was paid about €2m euros in commissions on the sale of masks in Spain.
And free with each criminal charge…one political scandal! We mentioned that Alberto is dating Madrid regional boss Ayuso of the center-right PP, right? Well, they actually shack up together in a 183m² Chamberí apartment worth some €1.2m (according to Idealista) that he bought recently, leading politicians from the opposition center-left PSOE to suggest she’s living in a place bought with the tax money “of all Spaniards”.

Guess what? Ayuso’s…pissed. She painted the release of the investigation as a political act by the PSOE of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez—Sánchez himself pushed PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo to demand Ayuso’s resignation—to distract from its own mask scandal (more on that in a moment!) and other problems.

In Ayuso’s words: “The president of the government, who tomorrow is going to approve the most corrupt law of democracy [the amnesty for Catalán separatists], has asked for my resignation. I imagine that to try to cover up this scandal,” she told the press. “Pedro Sánchez is sitting on political and economic corruption and this is not going to cover it."
Ayuso says more: “The most suspicious thing, the most murky thing, is to see all the powers of the State leaking data about an individual through all the newsrooms to try to destroy a politician. And for one thing: for having a romantic relationship.”

Ayuso also painted the tax fraud claims as another in a line of attacks on her family that go back to Caso Avalmadrid (a business her father partially owned received a dubious guarantee in 2011 from a semi public entity to help it obtain a €400,000 credit that it never totally paid back) and Caso Tomás Díaz Ayuso in 2021, when her brother was paid a €234,000 commission for his help with a COVID-era sale of (very expensive) masks to the Comunidad de Madrid.

Both previous cases were closed for a lack of evidence of wrongdoing/influence peddling, though the PP boss at the time of the second case Pablo Casado lost his job when he tried to use it to smear Ayuso.

“Now it’s the boyfriend’s turn,” she said in a Tuesday press conference (see video above). “It’s part of what I’ve been suffering for five years.”

Righteous indignation aside, this one doesn’t look good. Ayuso claimed that the taxman actually owes her man €600,000 (for a fine he already paid), but the documents so far published do paint a convincing picture of a guy who used overseas shell companies to avoid taxes when he came into the money. They may have been leaked to make her look bad and distract from the PSOE’s problems, but Ayuso’s man seems like he was caught (he paid €600k in fines already, right?).

Ayuso’s basic defense, once you strip away the indignation, is thin stuff. This has “nothing to do with the Comunidad de Madrid,” she told reporters, while Feijóo pointed out that the tax man was investigating Ayuso’s boyfriend, not Ayuso herself. The basic idea is that there was no inside dealing or kickbacks—no political corruption—like in the PSOE’s Caso Koldo. Sure, but this one looks like it’s going to leave a mark.
At least there’s black humor. Ayuso: “The next time I go out with someone, I’ll ask for their resume, tax return and vaccination certificate.”

Calm reactions of course. So, once this came out, everyone in Spain’s political zoo said, “We have to wait to see what the courts decide. Let’s work together to move necessary legislation forward.” Right? Lol. 🤣. Hell no! It was romper room in the parliament’s Wednesday session!

First, Feijóo hits Sánchez for Caso Koldo which the PP-run senate is investigating: “Tell us how far this corruption plot can go,” Feijóo asked. “I was not surprised by your silence when I said that you knew and you covered it up. He who remains silent admits [the allegation]. Your political future is threatened by corruption.” 🔥
Sánchez responds by saying basically, “No, you!” “I demand that you, your honor, ask for the resignation of Ms. Ayuso as president of the Community of Madrid; Be courageous. Be brave. Demand her resignation even if it costs you your job like it did Casado." 🔥

Then Sánchez goes way back to bust on Feijóo for his friendship with someone who became a big drug trafficker in their native Galicia. “Let's imagine that I am a senior official in an autonomous community…and that for five years I developed a close friendship with a drug trafficking boss,” Sánchez said ironically. “You would be asking for my resignation, as is logical, but you are not doing so because it was you, your honor, who developed that friendship with a drug trafficking boss in Galicia. That is the big difference between you and me, your honor, that you, with that history, have been able to climb to the top of your political party, and in my political party you would not have even become a town councilor.” 🔥🔥 (Feels like Sánchez has the upper hand in the diss-off.).
Best of the rest, Amnesty Edition: PP MP Borja Semper says to the PSOE, “You are going to amnesty corruption tomorrow. They are going to amnesty violence. You are going to amnesty all those who wanted to subvert the constitutional order through violence and who put their hand in the cashbox to do so." (Meh.) And the (sometimes delightfully scathing) fellow PP MP Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo calls the PSOE, “a hoax wrapped in a lie inside a scam,” which we don’t totally understand but have to admit is really pretty 🔥🔥🔥 on the diss-o-meter.
While we’re talking about significant others: The PP announced that it was registering a complaint with the Conflict of Interest Office to “determine the responsibility” of Sánchez for not recusing himself from cabinet meetings in which it made “favorable decisions” for Air Europa, “a company that had ties of an economic and professional nature” with Sánchez’s wife Begoña Gómez. The PP accuses Gómez of mediating to ensure that the airline obtained aid from the State (it got €475m from the a COVID rescue fund). According to the PP, “it is proven that Air Europa financed the university professorship” of Gómez.

This is going to be a week of fun from the clown car that is the Spanish parliament.

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💬 Five things to discuss at dinner parties this week

1. 🗳️ Catalonia calls snap election in May

There goes the neighborhood! (Again).

Catalonia regional president Pere Aragonès (from left-leaning separatist party ERC) announced Wednesday that he had decided to dissolve Parliament and call a snap election for May 12. The cause? His budget bill for 2024 was rejected by the regional parliament. His term was supposed to run until February 2025.

So what happened yesterday? Aragonès’s budget bill had the support of the Catalonian socialists and one member of the mixed group (the Grupo Mixto… you know, the uncool kids), but it fell short when the lefty En Comun Podem, aka Comuns—who were expected to support it—voted ‘no’.

How did it get to that? Enter the Hard Rock Casino in Tarragona.

Catalonia’s leftist coalition was already fragile when the Comuns said that to get their votes in favor of the 2024 budget, Aragonès’s government would have to halt plans for a major entertainment complex in Tarragona known as the Hard Rock Casino. The Comuns argue that such a project could make the current drought crisis in the region even worse.
It didn’t stop there. Aragonès’s ERC then asked for help from Yolanda Díaz, leader of the national leftist coalition Sumar, which includes the Comuns. But Yolanda wouldn’t budge, as she said she not only “respected but shared their decision” to fight a Casino that would “get massive gambling tax cuts and consume the same amount of water a town with a population of 30,000 would”.

That was the end of it. The budget’s 68-67 loss signaled significant political turmoil and basically forced Aragonès to call elections in an attempt to reset the fraught political landscape in the region.

National implications: Right after the snap election announcement, we learned that Prime Minister Sánchez decided to give up on the 2024 budget and shift the focus to next year’s “once the political situation in Catalonia is clarified”. (This would mean extending the 2023 budget throughout 2024.)
And it’s no wonder he did. With the Basque Country heading to the polls on April 21, and Catalonia in May, four of the eight parties supported his very fragile coalition government (PNV and Bildu in the Basque Country and Junts and ERC in Catalonia) will be campaigning against each other for the next two months.

So who’s better positioned to win? It’s hard to tell (obviously) and the pro-independence parties are more divided than ever.

Junts says that separatist leader (and still outlaw) Carles Puigdemont will run as he’s not banned from doing so (in fact, he ran back in 2021). However, it’s doubtful that he’ll get to campaign physically in the region because it’s very unlikely that any amnesty will be applied by then.

ERC will probably lead with Aragonès again because party leader Oriol Junqueras is banned from running. The fact that Aragonès couldn’t get a budget passed, and is seen by hardcore separatists as too buddy-buddy with the PSOE, does not bode well.
Salvador Illa from the Catalonian PSC socialists celebrated the election, and maybe could take enough votes from ERC to have a chance this time (back in 2021 he was the most voted candidate but couldn’t negotiate a majority). The problem? We have yet to see how much the Caso Koldo will hurt the socialists.

Whatever happens, Catalonia is once again at a crossroads. An editorial in the center-left pro-PSOE El País calls this “an opportunity to close a sterile chapter in its history in which, for 12 years, separatism has achieved successive parliamentary majorities with few results”. The center-right pro-PP El Mundo warns of a Puigdemont victory because of the political capital Junts has amassed “thanks to Sánchez’ concessions.” So we’ll agree to disagree.

2. 📺 David Broncano’s Possible Move to RTVE

If you don’t speak good Spanish, it’s likely you don’t know who David Broncano is. But ask any average Spaniard—especially if they are young—and they will surely have an opinion on him.

This 39-year-old comedian is one of the country’s top television presenters, known for hosting the late-night talk show La Resistencia on Movistar+ and for his unusual interviewing style.
He basically doesn’t prepare and likes to improvise live, which leads to hilarious interviews with some of the most influential voices in the Spanish speaking world. The only questions he asks are: How much money do you have in the bank? and When did you lose your virginity?
Politicians, singers, actors and athletes. They’ve all sat with Broncano for a one-on-one since 2018.

Broncano is considered by many to be a younger, more progressive version of the other king of Spanish late-night TV, Pablo Motos, host of popular TV show El Hormiguero on Telecinco (see video of the both of them together above), who has in recent years become critical of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and who you may remember, among other things, for his recent (staged) bickering with actress Sofía Vergara over her accent.

El Mundo broke the news last week that Spanish state-run RTVE was close to finalizing a contract with Broncano to move his show to the public network in an effort to directly compete with El Hormiguero (currently Spain’s most watched show with 2.3m viewers at the end of 2023).
Sources told the newspaper that it was a three-year contract with 160 episodes per season, going live on La 1 network during prime time from Monday to Thursday and would cost €42m overall.

But… not so fast.

Once the story broke, the bigwigs at RTVE apparently decided to halt negotiations and postpone the signing until the organization’s Ordinary Council meets next week.

Turns out that it didn’t sit well with a large portion of the council members that the management did not consult them beforehand about a contract of such magnitude, as well as the amounts and fine print of said pre-agreement.
RTVE called an Extraordinary Council meeting for this Monday, but the meeting ended unexpectedly over fears that the Council would reject the pre-agreement with the show’s producer El Terrat.

Now, as RTVE is a state-owned organization, its Council is made up of nine members: three of them appointed by the PP, three by PSOE, two by Podemos and one by the PNV. And (just like in Parliament) there’s a lot of drama going on, especially with interim president Elena Sánchez, who pushed to hire Broncano.

The ‘no’ side on the proposed agreement included the three PP councilors, along with the one from Podemos, reports El Mundo. The reasons? Broncano is “too left” and if the show fails to get the large audiences it hoped for, it would be moved to a less desirable time slot but still cost the same.
Faced with far from universal backing for her plan, Sánchez herself decided to postpone a decision and change the contract from three seasons to one as three-year deal feels like “a mortgage”.

Broncano’s fate is now up in the air and may be decided next week.

3. 👑 Royal visit in…Ciudad Real? Like, seriously?

The Tapa likes to note when Spain’s ex-King Juan Carlos I (JCI) dares to return for a visit. But now we’ve apparently had another royal visit—and very much not from the person, or to the place, we’d expect.

Yup, Camila Bowles aka Queen Camilla took a week’s break from the madness around King Charles III’s cancer treatment in…Ciudad Real? Apparently so, as revealed by the TV program TardeAR.
Specifically, on an estate named La Garganta The Throat)—which apparently was where in Feb. 2004 JCI met Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgesntein, his to-be lover whose arrival basically set off the chain of events that led to his abdication. It’s meant to be where the rich and powerful go to chill.
Not really the first time: The British royal family have been regular visitors to La Garganta, and Princes William and Harry (when they were still friends 🤣) had a visit in 2012.
And what’s La Garganta like? Awfully nice, tbh. 15,000 hectares. Private train station. Heliport. Three 10-bedroom villas. And previous owners including Lord Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor, Franz Duke of Bavaria, and the mining company Rio Tinto.
Neighbors? None other than El Castaño, the farm of the Botín family of Banco Santander fame.

What was Camilla’s trip there about? The idea is to recover from the exhaustion caused by dealing with Charles III’s cancer (and not helped by Kate Middleton’s Photoshop-gate) by chilling out and hunting partridges.

Pity the partridges. 🦆 Ok, that’s a duck, but that’s what the emoji gods give us.

4. 🇵🇸 What do Spain and Gaza have in common?

A ship has sailed from Cyprus to Gaza with 200 tons of food on board. We’ve all (mostly) read about that. But its super-deep Spanish ties? They’ve been in the headlines less.

World Central Kitchen is behind the food shipment. The NGO is led by founder and Chief Feeding Officer José Andrés, a U.S.-based Spanish chef from Asturias known for his humanitarian work. On a side note: Andrés moved to Barcelona as a child and studied cooking there. He then met über-chef Ferran Adrià in Barcelona and ended up working for Adrià at El Bulli for three years—until he was fired in 1990 because Adrià thought he had stood him at a meeting.
Open Arms is providing the boat that’s humping the food to Gaza. The Barcelona-based NGO, which is best known for rescuing lost refugees at sea, signed up with José Andrés’s WCK to bring the food to Gaza.

What’s the background? Besides having an active NGO culture, Spain (especially the left) has historically been a supporter of Palestine, and such aid missions have been largely seen as standing up for the little guy.

Plus, WGK and Open Arms are both heavily invested in the eastern Mediterranean.
The Cyprus to Gaza trip is about 250 miles and should take about two days. WCK says it has another 500 tons of aid in Cyprus ready to be loaded on future boats.

5.🤫 Queen Letizia’s secret Instagram account

Royals. They are just like us. And by that we mean they are addicted to social media.

Actor and podcast host Mario Marzo made a curious revelation this week after describing an exchange he had with Queen Letizia that ended up confirming a rumor that’s been going around: She has a finsta—that is, a fake or incognito Instagram account that people may use secretly to check out other profiles or to post to their closest friends and/or family.

The rumor has been especially fierce since the Queen of Spain seems very well versed in all things related to the photo sharing app. In fact, Letizia often makes suggestions about who to (and not to) follow on Instagram, Vanidades explains, which is very suspicious as she doesn’t have an official personal account herself. In fact, the only official social media account for the Spanish royal family is on X/Twitter.

This rumor seems to now be confirmed after Marzo, while describing an exchange he had with the Queen during an event organized by the Royal Family, said on his podcast Quieres ser mi amigo? that she seemed to know everything about him, his wife, his kids and his career.

When Marzo told her that he was “surprised” by how much she seemed to know about him, she eventually admitted that it was because she followed him on Instagram (see video above).

The European media has—for a while now—suspected that she is secretly using Instagram regularly from the shadows not only because she wants to keep up with what’s happening in the world but also because she wants to know the opinion that young people have of her two daughters.

We don’t know her finsta handle, but Vanidades explains that it is a private profile and has zero posts so far. So basically it’s just for stalking, which is what most of us do anyway.

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