Spain is only a month away from local elections in which a new generation of young politicians promising sweeping changes is expected to burst onto the scene.
And yet the figure currently hogging the headlines is a 66-year-old former economy minister and IMF managing director, Rodrigo Rato, who is deeply mired in a corruption scandal.
Customs officials searched Rato’s home and office in Madrid on April 16th and he was briefly placed under arrest as part of an investigation into money laundering and tax fraud.
The case is linked to a tax amnesty introduced by the conservative Popular Party (PP) government of Mariano Rajoy in 2012. It has emerged that Rato, who was a senior minister in a previous PP administration, took advantage of the amnesty to legalise assets he held abroad. His subsequent movement of investments and deposits raised suspicions in the tax office.
Authorities have frozen a total of 78 bank accounts belonging to Rato as part of the probe. While the former IMF chief has denied media reports that his foreign assets total as much as €26.6 million, the scandal has been a huge blow to his already heavily-stained personal reputation and his former party.
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