| Series Title | The Economist |
|---|---|
| Series Details | No.8472, 8.4.06 |
| Publication Date | 08/04/2006 |
| ISSN | 0013-0613 |
| Content Type | Journal | Series | Blog, News |
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Date: 08/04/06 A corruption scandal involving property engulfs a Spanish resort THE brash, ritzy Spanish Mediterranean resort of Marbella has always been fond of the limelight. Arab potentates, film stars, sports celebrities and on-the-run crooks have all come to this booming party town on the Costa del Sol over the past two decades. Now, however, it is getting attention it does not want: as a capital of Spanish municipal corruption. A magistrate has locked up the mayor, the deputy mayor and nine other people. Spain's Socialist government is taking the unprecedented step of dissolving the town council. Administrators will be sent in to run it. The property seized includes 200 fighting bulls, 103 thoroughbred horses, 275 works of art, plenty of jewels, a helicopter and four Porsches. The mess in Marbella has exposed a problem that some Spaniards fear reaches other places. The long Spanish construction boom, especially along the Mediterranean coast, has brought an explosion in the money that town halls take in from issuing building licences. Juan Sanchez, the mayor of nearby Casares, estimates that some municipalities now get as much as 70% of their income from this source. Yet what could be a sensible way of financing local development got out of hand in Marbella. Additional under-the-counter bribes became a routine part of town-hall business, say investigators. The magistrate claims that the mayor, Marisol Yague, was a "puppet" in the hands of developers. Her deputy "charges for everything", he added, in a document obtained by Spanish newspapers. Even the local police force is reported to be rotten with graft. It is not just Marbella's reputation that has suffered. Many of its building licences have now been challenged by higher authorities. Some 37% of the town's 80,000 houses and apartments are in legal limbo. Property owners, including many northern European sun-seekers, worry that their homes might be bulldozed. Is Marbella a one-off, as other Spanish mayors insist? Or could similar rot be found in other places? Spaniards have reason for concern. The mayor of Manilva, just down the coast from Marbella, is awaiting trial on charges of involvement in a euro250m ($300m) money-laundering ring. A former mayor of Estepona was convicted on similar charges. The truly disturbing thing about this scandal is that nobody was surprised. Rumours of rampant corruption stretch back at least 15 years, when a populist construction magnate, Jess Gil, became Marbella's mayor. Local voters were not bothered. They re-elected him twice. In a report written three years ago, researchers at the Criminology Institute at Malaga University said something was wrong. "It is sad that we have got to this stage, when it could have been stopped before," says the institute's Alejandra Gomez-Cespedes. Gil died in 2004. But his former planning adviser, Juan Antonio Roca, is at the centre of the new scandal. Like all those arrested, Mr Roca pleads his innocence. "This government does not tolerate, nor will it tolerate and much less support corrupt behaviour," thundered the deputy prime minister, Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega, after a special cabinet meeting in Madrid to discuss Marbella. Spaniards and other Europeans may feel they need more evidence to back up that claim if they are still thinking of buying a property in the sun. A corruption scandal involving property engulfs the Spanish resort of Marbella. |
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| Source Link | http://www.economist.com |
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| Countries / Regions | Spain |
