Spain Papers Review - Monday October 19 2009
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By h.b. - Oct 19, 2009 - 9:01 AM
Yet more on the Gürtel case with three papers leading with three different areas of new revelations

El Mundo leads with the story and says that one of the people to take commissions from Francisco Correa took ‘dozens of millions’ out of Spain. It says that Eduardo Eraso picked up 1.5% for putting the black money obtained from works financed by the Partido Popular. He looked for Swiss people who wanted to invest in Spain and gave them an equivalent amount in Spain to launder the proceeds. The paper says he started this in 2002 and notes that in September 2004 alone got 270,000 € in commission for having placed 18 million outside the country.
El Mundo has a front page photo of PP leader, Mariano Rajoy, visiting a cheese factory, and has the caption, Rajoy denies having a plan to replace Camps. El País has practically the same photo and caption.
El País also leads with the Gürtel case and headlines ‘The Supreme Court is now investigating the Castilla y León government in the affair. The paper says that the money laundering unit of the police sent the court evidence against the President of the Regional Parliament, José Manuel Fernández Santiago, and PP Senator and ex treasurer, Luis Bárcenas.
Público headlines that now the reckless spending by Esperanza Aguirre and the regional government in Madrid has been revealed. The paper has six pages on the revelations, including hard numbers and copies of receipts, that the Madrid regional government gave more than 300 contracts to the Correa network, including the opening of schools and hospitals. The paper says that the network got more than three million € in hand-picked contracts from Madrid between 2004 and 2008.
La Razón however claims that Garzón and the Prosecutors Office hid a second piece of evidence which showed Camps was not guilty in the suits affair.

El Mundo has more on the Faisán case when ETA sympathizers were allegedly tipped off ahead of a raid. The paper says that Ministry for the Interior replaced the group which acted in the case.
ABC says that ETA has admitted that it needs socialist partners as it tries to fight what it sees as the judicial and political attacks against it.

La Razón leads with a look at the budgets for the regions next year and notes that the Government will give 6.875 billion more to the PSOE regions than those of the PP. It says that the Government of Esperanza Aguirre is one to be hit the hardest in the transfers of the state.
The paper also notes that a lack of cash has stopped several regions from paying pharmacies and suppliers for the rest of the year.

Público notes that the so-called ‘Millet case’ which saw the Director of the Palau de la Música in Barcelona admitting taking money from the concert venue, has now seen Catalan parties implicated in the affair.
Barcelona paper, El Periódico, notes that the prosecutor will be asking today for Fèlix Millet to be sent to prison.

Following Saturday’s march against abortion in Madrid, El Mundo reports that the President of Congress, José Bono, has called for a ‘grand agreement’ to reform the law by consensus.
La Razón has a photo of José Bono in church in Toledo, and asks the question ‘Can a Catholic be in favour of abortion?’ The paper says he said it was not a question of ideals, but one of conscience.
ABC leads with Bono’s call for consensus and notes that the PP leader Mariano Rajoy has called for the law to be withdrawn.
El País considers the system which analyses images in order to count how many attend demonstrations. The Lynce system counted 55,316 at the anti-abortion rally on Saturday, the paper says one by one. Organisers had claimed two million.
Whatever the number, La Vanguardia headlines today that it impressed those in the PSOE Socialist party.

In international news;
El Mundo notes that Teheran has accused the United States of attacking its Revolutionary Guard, and has promised revenge.
El País says that a suicide bomber caused the bloodbath against the Revolutionary Guard, but says that the Sunni guerillas are being blamed for the death of six military chiefs.

El País tells us that the Taliban have stopped the advance of the Pakistani army. The paper speaks of intense combat yesterday. A military spokesman claimed that 60 Taliban had been killed, with five soldiers.

ABC highlights the Spanish Foreign Minister’s visit to Cuba, and notes that Miguel Ángel Moratinos will not be meeting with the opposition on the trip, and does not know whether he will meet President Raúl either.
The paper has a front page photo of Moratinos in the La Habana Vieja museum.

El País reports on the advance of the Euro as a currency of reference. It says it is close to 1.5 dollars because of the weakness of the United States economy.

The news that the United States balloon family did it all for publicity is covered by the Spanish papers. El Mundo among those to give them even more limelight by putting the father and his six year old son on their masthead today.

El Mundo has a front page photo of Julián Simón, who won the 125cc motorbike world championship in Australia yesterday.

And finally,
El Pais has a photo of a happy Jenson Button who it notes has won the F1 World Championship. The paper reports that Brawn has also won the Constructors’ title.

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