Saturday, February 21, 2009

First They Came For The Clichés....And I Did Nothing

As the Partido Popular attempts to fight back against the serious corruption charges facing some of their members and collaborators, they have taken the status of victimhood a little bit too far. Both Esperanza Aguirre and Valencian regional president Francisco Camps have resorted to comparing themselves and their party with victims of the Holocaust in recent days. For some reason the poem they cite or paraphrase in their defence is being almost universally attributed to Bertolt Brecht, whereas I have always understood it to be the work of Martin Niemoller. Apart from the odd situation of PP members citing such a well known "rojo" as Brecht, you would have thought that all those so expensively educated by priests would have got things right. Especially as Niemoller was a priest himself. Although he was one of those. A Protestant, that is. There is always something instinctively repugnant about people using a poem symbolically linked with such a massive genocide to try and describe their own far less appropriate situation. If the PP really want a quote from Brecht to help them describe the current situation in their party what's wrong with "Beggars are begging, thieves thieving and whores whoring"?

Meanwhile, reports suggest that one of Spanish cinema's big hits in 2010 could be "Bring Me The Head Of Mariano Bermejo". The keen hunter and occasional justice minister is said to be on the list of those who could be shuffled out of the government next year. If Bermejo goes it will be because the mess over his hunting activities has given the PP a tale which they can use to distract from their own misdemeanours. El Mundo manages to headline with Bermejo every day at the moment, whilst stories of serious theft and corruption involving "another party" are buried further down the page. Bermejo failed to pay his hunting licence in Andalucia, and has apparently used his ministerial powers to go hunting in state owned properties where mere mortals would not be allowed to slaughter animals; with or without a licence. He has an image problem, and hasn't reacted well to the situation. Also on the list for a reshuffle could be the minister of Public Works, Magdalena Alvarez. Things are not looking good for her, she's already been sent to Siberia.


6 comments:

Valencia Property said...

Interesting times indeed and quite funny if you take a step back. It is always good to compare corrupt practices by Spanish politicians and constructors, usually one and the same.

Colin Davies said...

Graeme, I bow to no one in my enjoyment of what you write. And I know you make no claim to or pretence of impartiality. But is it too much to ask that you amuse us neutrals by turning your forensic gaze on, say, Andalucia and Sr Chaves? Or any other miscreant PSOE fielfdom of your choosing.

teseside - A mythical place in the NE of England

Valencia Property said...

Or the good one going on off Pontevedra at the moment with an artificial island being constructed by the great and good of the PSOE. (They are not constructing it just feathering their beds from it.

Graeme said...

Colin, I'm actually thinking that I should write more about other topics - I don't really want to be writing about corruption every day. But with so much going on....

However, the suggestion that I never write about scandals involving anyone else is a bit of a legend - I've written about PSOE involvement in corruption cases in Estepona and Seseña to name a couple. Not surprisingly, I tend to focus more on what's going on in Madrid than the situation in Andalucia....a far away land of which I know relatively little.

Troy said...

Alas the legendary corruption in Andalucia should indeed be tackled, but I'm afraid that with the prisons already overcrowed, there wouldn't be room at the inn for 10000 Andaluz mayors...

But the real cesspool of corruption, the one that barely registers on anyone's radar lies out here in the lands of the Conquistadors...They wouldn't even have to 'investigate' per say, a simple walk around the city would show enough!

Anonymous said...

Match to Graeme by knockout blow.