Spain corruption protesters clash with police in Madrid
Protestors took to the streets outside the headquarters of Spain's ruling Popular Party to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy over a deepening scandal alleging that he and other party officials took secret payments from an illegal slush fund.
Thousands of protesters demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy demonstrated Thursday night. Photo: REX FEATURES
By Fiona Govan, Madrid
11:07AM BST 19 Jul 2013
Police clashed with demonstrators overnight at protests staged in front of the party's offices across Spain. Some 14 people were treated were for injuries and five were arrested after violence broke out at protests in Madrid and Barcelona.
Mr Rajoy has faced growing public outrage following revelations by the disgraced former party treasurer of illegal funding of the party dating back more than two decades.
Luis Barcenas, who is currently in jail pending trial on unrelated fraud and corruption charges, claims the Prime Minister was among party leaders who received envelopes full of cash while he was in the previous conservative government and in the run up to elections in 2011.
Opposition leaders have demanded that Mr Rajoy appear before Parliament to explain himself and are threatening to call a vote of censure to test confidence in the government.
Mr Rajoy spoke on Monday to insist that he would not respond to calls to resign over the matter and would fulfil his electoral mandate and steer Spain out of a deep recession. Text messages emerged that suggested he was sympathetic to Barcenas.
On Friday, Spain's right of centre El Mundo newspaper claimed that Rajoy had become a liability for the country in the eyes of leading international investors.
The spectacle of alleged greed and corruption has enraged Spaniards hurting from austerity and sky high unemployment.
