Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy testified in court on Wednesday as a witness in a graft trial and said he had no knowledge of the alleged illegal financing scheme that helped fund his Popular Party. </s> MADRID, May 25 (Reuters) - Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy will face a vote of no confidence over a graft case involving members of his People's Party (PP) in which a High Court judge also questioned the credibility of his testimony as a witness last year.

It is not yet clear whether the opposition Socialists could secure enough backing to topple the conservative Rajoy, as they would need the support of upstart parties Podemos and Ciudadanos.

The case, which relates to the use of a slush fund by the Conservatives in the 1990s and early 2000s to illegally finance campaigns, has plagued Rajoy since he came to power in 2011. He has always denied wrongdoing.

Rajoy, became the first sitting prime minister in Spain to give evidence in a trial when he was called as a witness in the case last year, prompting calls for him to resign.

Twenty-nine people related to the PP, including a former treasurer and other senior members, were convicted on Thursday of offences including falsifying accounts, influence-peddling and tax crimes. They were sentenced to a combined 351 years behind bars.

In his ruling, the judge said there was evidence the party ran a slush fund for many years and that the credibility of Rajoy's testimony denying it "should be questioned".

"(His) testimony does not appear as plausible enough to refute the strong evidence showing the existence of a slush fund in the party," the judge said. (Reporting by Julien Toyer and Raquel Castillo Editing by Peter Graff) </s> MADRID (Reuters) - Spain’s Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy will face a vote of no confidence over a graft case involving members of his People’s Party (PP) in which a High Court judge also questioned the credibility of his testimony as a witness last year.

It is not yet clear whether the opposition Socialists could secure enough backing to topple the conservative Rajoy, as they would need the support of upstart parties Podemos and Ciudadanos.

The case, which relates to the use of a slush fund by the Conservatives in the 1990s and early 2000s to illegally finance campaigns, has plagued Rajoy since he came to power in 2011. He has always denied wrongdoing.

Rajoy, became the first sitting prime minister in Spain to give evidence in a trial when he was called as a witness in the case last year, prompting calls for him to resign.

Twenty-nine people related to the PP, including a former treasurer and other senior members, were convicted on Thursday of offences including falsifying accounts, influence-peddling and tax crimes. They were sentenced to a combined 351 years behind bars.

In his ruling, the judge said there was evidence the party ran a slush fund for many years and that the credibility of Rajoy’s testimony denying it “should be questioned”.

“(His) testimony does not appear as plausible enough to refute the strong evidence showing the existence of a slush fund in the party,” the judge said. </s> Madrid, May 24 (efe-epa). - A court verdict that found Spain's ruling Popular Party and some of its former officials guilty of fraudulent financial dealings on Thursday has also cast doubt on the trustworthiness of testimony given by the party's leader, the country's prime minister, who said in court that he knew nothing of such activity.

Mariano Rajoy denied knowledge of the existence of a slush fund at his party's headquarters when he appeared in court in July to give testimony before an investigating magistrate. </s> Spain's socialist party on Friday said it would put forward a motion of no confidence against Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy over a graft case involving members of his People's Party.

MADRID: Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy was threatened with two separate no-confidence motions on Friday, after a graft trial involving members of his party in which a judge questioned the credibility of his testimony.

The opposition Socialists presented their motion to parliament, while the centre-right Ciudadanos - Rajoy's former ally - issued him with an ultimatum.

"If Rajoy does not call snap elections we would be ready to put forward (our own) motion of no confidence in order to hold elections," Jose Manuel Villegas, a senior member of Ciudadanos, told a news conference.

Twenty-nine people related to Rajoy's People's Party (PP), including a former treasurer and other senior members, were convicted on Thursday of offences including falsifying accounts, influence-peddling and tax crimes. They were sentenced to a combined 351 years behind bars.

The case, which relates to the use of a slush fund by the Conservatives in the 1990s and early 2000s to illegally finance campaigns, has plagued Rajoy since he came to power in 2011. He has always denied wrongdoing.

Rajoy became the first sitting prime minister in Spain to give evidence in a trial when he was called as a witness in the case last year, prompting calls for him to resign.

In his ruling, the judge said there was evidence the party ran a slush fund for many years and that the credibility of Rajoy's testimony denying it "should be questioned".

"(His) testimony does not appear as plausible enough to refute the strong evidence showing the existence of a slush fund in the party," the judge said.

Rajoy was already under fire for his handling of the secession crisis in Catalonia, with many voters turning away from the PP to Ciudadanos.

Hours before the court ruling was made public on Thursday, Rajoy suggested he would run for a third term in an election due by mid-2020, but political observers said he was now likely to face an internal challenge in his party.

Ciudadanos helped the PP pass this year's budget bill as recently as Wednesday.

"It is clear that yesterday's ruling marks a tipping point in our relationship with the governing party," Villegas told COPE radio on Friday.

"The ruling is serious enough for us to sit down, reflect and take decisions." </s> SAN FERNANDO DE HENARES, Spain (Reuters) - Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy on Wednesday denied any knowledge of an illegal financing scheme within his conservative People's Party (PP) and said he not taken any illicit payments, as he testified in court in a long-running corruption case.

Rajoy is the first sitting premier in Spain to be called to court as a witness. The trial centers on graft allegations involving businesses and small city councils, but it has tainted the PP and led to allegations of a slush fund within the party.

Asked in court whether he knew whether there was an illegal financing scheme for election campaigns within the party and cash donations from anonymous donors, a combative Rajoy said: "Never."

"I never heard anything because, as I have stated, I was never in charge of financial matters within the party," Rajoy said. </s> Spanish PM Rajoy heads to court as witness in corruption trial

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy holds a book written by Venezuelan jailed politician, Leopoldo Lopez as he attends a meeting with his relatives at the Moncloa palace in Madrid on March 1, 2016. — Reuters picMADRID, July 26 — Mariano Rajoy will today become Spain’s first sitting prime minister to be called to court as he appears as a witness in a long-running graft trial that has rocked his conservative party and hurt him at the ballot box.

Rajoy returned to power for a second term last October with a severely diminished mandate, after a series of corruption scandals tainted several members of his People’s Party (PP) and turned off voters.

The prime minister’s court appearance turns the spotlight back on one of the most prominent cases at a delicate time for Rajoy, who no longer enjoys a majority in parliament and has to scrape together votes to get laws through.

He had sought to testify by videoconference, arguing that the journey to the court of San Fernando de Henares on the outskirts of Madrid would be a waste of taxpayer money. But the request was denied by Spain’s High Court.

The trial follows a long graft investigation into several city councils which are alleged to have received illegal financing from a network of companies.

Known in Spanish as the “Gurtel” case, after the nickname of supposed mastermind and businessman Francisco Correa, the probe ended up reaching several former high-ranking PP members and drew attention to an alleged party slush fund.

Former PP party treasurer, Luis Barcenas, is among those on trial on charges of organised crime, falsifying accounts, influence-peddling and tax crimes.

Rajoy is expected to be grilled about the alleged slush fund and his knowledge of party business in the early 2000s, when he held several senior positions in the PP.

He has previously denied receiving any illegal funds.

The prime minister has sought to distance himself over the years from this probe and other corruption scandals, but his turn as a witness is likely to be seized upon by opposition parties who have repeatedly called for him to step down.

That is unlikely to have any immediate consequences — left-wing parties including the Socialists and Podemos (“We Can”) have failed in their bids to oust Rajoy before, as they lack the clout in parliament and are divided on many fronts.

But it could still be damaging for the prime minister and his party.

“Corruption issues will continue to put a ceiling on the PP’s electoral aspirations,” Antonio Barroso, deputy director of research at Teneo Intelligence said in a note.

“While Rajoy should be benefiting from (Spain’s) strong economic rebound, the ruling party has been losing support in the polls recently.” — Reuters </s> Spain’s prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, became the first serving Spanish premier to testify in a criminal case on Wednesday when he emphatically denied any knowledge of an illegal funding racket within the ruling People’s party.

Rajoy, the PP’s vice secretary general between 1990 and 2003, had been called to give evidence in the Gürtel case, in which 37 business and political figures were accused of involvement in a kickbacks-for-contracts scheme.

The prime minister is not accused of any wrongdoing, but the case has become emblematic of the many corruption scandals that have engulfed the PP over recent years.

Rajoy, who appeared as a witness in the long-running trial, insisted that his duties during the period in question were exclusively political and not financial. He said he had not been aware of the illegal financing scheme or cash donations from anonymous backers.

“I never heard anything because, as I have said, I was never in charge of financial matters within the party,” he told the court. Rajoy said there had been a clear division between his role in planning local, national and European election campaigns, and the activities of the PP’s financial officers.

Among the accused is the former PP treasurer Luis Bárcenas, once a close ally of Rajoy, who has claimed that high-level party officials knew about the illegal contributions.

In often fractious exchanges with lawyers, Rajoy said suggestions that a slush fund was used to pay illegal bonuses to senior PP officials were “absolutely false”.

He explained that “quite a lot” of the party’s MPs had had their salaries topped up by the PP – and had declared the sums to the tax authorities – but said such payments ceased when they took up a government post.

Rajoy was also asked about the supportive text messages he sent Bárcenas after his ally found himself in legal trouble. They famously told him to “be strong” and suggested the party was “doing what we can”.

Invited to explain what he had meant, Rajoy replied: “I’m in the habit of replying to messages and he had my number. I could have used that phrase or any other one; it doesn’t mean anything.”

He went on: “‘We’re doing what we can’ means precisely that we’re doing what we can; it means we didn’t do anything that might have prejudiced any trial.”

Rajoy’s arrival at the court in San Fernando de Henares was met with a battery of journalists and dozens of protesters bearing signs reading: “Justice! Justice!” and “Mafia Out! Democracy in!”

The case is known as Gürtel after the codename that detectives gave their anti-corruption inquiry, which centred on Francisco Correa, a businessman with close ties to the PP who is accused of paying bribes to party officials between 1999 and 2006 in return for contracts to carry out public contracts. Gürtel is the German translation of correa (belt).

Rajoy told the court he had severed the party’s relationship with Correa’s businesses in 2004 after learning that the businessman had been misusing the party’s name.

He added: “The truth is I didn’t know [Correa]. But I’m absolutely sure that I saw him at a public event once. I had absolutely no dealings with him.”

Correa – who enjoyed being called Don Vito in reference to the Marlon Brando character in The Godfather – is accused of misusing public funds and setting up offshore accounts to keep millions of euros at a safe remove.



The scandal which has enveloped the PP since 2009 led to the resignation three years ago of the health minister, Ana Mato. Her ex-husband, Jesús Sepúlveda, is on trial for embezzlement, fraud and peddling influence while mayor of Pozuelo de Alarcón, west of Madrid.

The family is alleged to have accepted holidays, presents including Louis Vuitton products, a Jaguar and even children’s birthday parties at which clowns performed from Correa’s companies.

The leader of Spain’s opposition parties were quick to attack Rajoy’s performance in the witness box.

Pedro Sanchez, head of the Spanish socialist party, said it was a “black day for our democracy. For the first time, a prime minister has had to sit down and testify about corruption in his party.”



Two of Rajoy’s predecessors – Adolfo Suárez and Felipe González – were involved in separate trials but only after serving as prime minister.

Pablo Iglesias, leader of the anti-austerity Podemos party, criticised Rajoy for the “insolent” tone of some of his replies, tweeting: “Spain doesn’t deserve this disgrace. We need to get them out of government.” </s> MADRID (Reuters) - Spain’s Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy will hold a news conference at 1400 CET, the government said in a statement.

On Friday, Rajoy was threatened with two separate no-confidence motions, after a graft trial involving members of his party in which a judge questioned the credibility of his testimony.
The Court does not believe the statements as a witness that Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy made on 26 July 2017, which could imply the fulfillment of a crime of false testimony.