Can Nothing Be Done To Help These People?

The incidence of poverty amongst senior members of the Partido Popular (PP) seems to be getting out of hand. No sooner have decent citizens come to the rescue of Esperanza Aguirre, than more sad news reaches me of yet another deserving case. I have read this afternoon in El Mundo that the PP leader Mariano Rajoy, unlike Espe, does manage to make his salary last the whole month, but that he still needs to check his bank account every 30 days.

The Poor Party....

This is shocking news, the man has a salary as a member of parliament, and another one as leader of the PP parliamentary group; yet he still has to fret and worry about whether he will make ends meet. The whole issue arose as a result of Mariano's appearance on the new show on Spanish television where members of the public are allowed to ask direct questions to senior politicians; I have already written about Prime Minister Zapatero's problem with the price of a cup of coffee on the same show. Mariano was asked how much he earned by someone who lives on a pension of €300 a month. He dodged the question, admitting - as if we didn't know - that his salary is a good bit higher than €300. However, nobody seriously expected him to be pleading poverty the very next day, maybe they should have had a collection amongst the audience on the programme.

According to El Mundo, members of the Spanish parliament earn a base €3020.79 a month, but this gets topped up with another €1762.18 for members from outside of Madrid. Then you add the expenses.....and the salary as leader of the PP. It looks like we might need someone to organise another appeal!