Ricardo Costa back in the PP fold two months early

Ricardo Costa back in the PP fold two months early
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By h.b. - Sep 3, 2010 - 7:20 PM
The Secertary General of the Partido Popular in Valencia had been suspended for a year

Ricardo Costa and Manuel Cobo - Photos EFE

Two days after a new police report prepared for the judge investigating the Gürtel corruption case put Ricardo Costa at the centre of alleged illegal funding of the Valencia Partido Popular, claiming that contracts were issued in exchange for backhanders, the party’s central Guarantees and Rights Committee has welcomed him back into the fold, two months earlier than previously envisaged.

Costa, the ex Secretary General of the party in Valencia, has been suspended from the party for the past ten months, but now recovers all his rights as a party militant. The reason for allowing him back two months before the end of the year punishment initially handed out was given ‘because of his plainly satisfactory behaviour’.

Costa was suspended for declaring that he was in the position he was ‘despite’ the party headquarters in Madrid, after they asked for his resignation from the post because of links to the Gürtel case.

The Deputy Mayor of Madrid, Manuel Cobo, who was suspended from the party at the same time, for criticising, in an El País interview, Esperanza Aguirre, the party’s regional leader in Madrid, has also been allowed back as a party activist two months early.

The news comes one day after Mariano Rajoy indicated that, despite the corruption allegations against him and new evidence from the police, Francisco Camps should be the party’s candidate in the Valencia regional elections next year.

Mayor of Madrid, Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón, has also backed the decision by Rajoy by saying that he thought Camps should remain as candidate in Valencia.

Meanwhile the ex PP Prime Minister, José María Aznar, has seen his wages from Rupert Murdoch and News Corporation to 171,000 € a year. Aznar is on the board of advisors for News Corporation, the owners of, among others, The Wall Street Journal, The Times, and TV Channels CNBC, Fox and Sky News.
Aznar will get 77,872 € in cash, and 93,428 € worth of shares, double the amount last year.

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