The Spanish Industry Minister in office, José Manuel Soria, resigned Friday acknowledging having committed “errors” after the appearance of his name in the “Panama Papers” and unleashing the demand explanations from the chief of the conservative government Mariano Rajoy.
He moved to Rajoy “my irrevocable decision to submit my resignation,” said Soria in a statement, adding that this does not imply recognition of any illegal activity.
Soria, 58 years, it is the latest political victim of so-called “Panama papers”, a scandal that erupted in early April when a group of international newspapers reported over a year of inquiries about 11.5 million leaked documents from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca.
This information, which pointed to alleged tax fraud by politicians, athletes, artists and aristocrats, had already led to the resignation of Prime Minister of Iceland, Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson.
Soria, widely criticized for his ministerial management in energy and environmental issues, recognized only “mistakes made over the last days” in their contradictory public explanations.
on Monday had been surprised and indignant after appearing his name associated with a company in Bahamas. Denied the news and called for an investigation.
In a drop he continued to drop, on Tuesday appeared as secretary of the firm UK Lines registered in the United Kingdom, which again attributed to a “new error”.
However, the publication by the press of a British commercial document proving otherwise forced him to admit, one day later, the company had been founded by his father. He said, however, have never participated in it.
This was also denied by the subsequent reproduction of a record company with his signature, while several media claimed that Soria was until 2002 administrator a company located in the British tax haven of Jersey.
it was the straw that broke the camel.
“I think that Mr. Rajoy is the only Spanish he believes the minister Soria has not lied to us,” launched spokesman radical left party Podemos, Inigo Errejón.
Rajoy must ‘come forward’
“it is clear that Mr. Rajoy has to appear before Congress to clarify all ends of the case Soria,” he said on Friday socialist leader Pedro Sanchez.
“Rajoy has to step up, you can not hide as it has done in recent days,” said the leader of Citizens, center-right.
on , the Deputy Prime Minister, Soraya Saenz de Santamaria, simply defending “the presumption of innocence” of resigning.
Soria said give to tackle the damage to the conservative incumbent government and the Popular party (PP right), at the prospect of new elections in June due to the difficulties of the Spanish political forces to form a new government after elections in December.
the conservative formation Rajoy, who hopes to achieve better result, is hampered for months by the proliferation of corruption scandals and fraud
the resignation of Soria is the second precipitated by a scandal since the PP came to power in December 2011. in November 2014 resigned Health Minister Ana Mato, investigated as a beneficiary of the alleged bribes collected by her ex-husband.
Soria justified its contradictions citing “the lack of precise information on events that occurred more than twenty years ago “. Furthermore, it is “past business activities to my entry into politics in 1995,” he said.
In 2002, however, he was mayor of Las Palmas, capital of the Balearic Islands and his hometown , for seven years.
His resignation satisfy environmental associations that had faced him for the legislature to authorize oil exploration off the coast of the Canary Islands, drastically reducing aid to renewable energy or compensate with 1.350 million the closure of a controversial storage project submarine gas in the Mediterranean.
“José Manuel Soria has passed the legislature falsifying information and deceiving the public, implementing measures only benefit large multinational corporations, “he said the NGO Ecologists in Action said in a statement.
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