Spaniards protest fraud by ruling party

Angry protesters have staged a demonstration outside the headquarters of Spain’s ruling Popular Party to protest alleged corruption within the party amid the nation’s growing financial troubles.

The Tuesday protest rally came in response to a Sunday report in El Mundo newspaper, releasing spending records of the conservative party that showed it had made payments to its members from an illicit slush fund.

The protester further called for the resignation of the Spanish government.

The development comes as the Spaniards have been struggling with persisting recession, high unemployment and deep budget cuts over recent years.

This is while the Popular Party issued a statement rejecting the illegal financing allegations publish by prominent newspaper, which cited the political party’s former treasurer Luis Barcenas as its source.

Barcenas revealed in his interview with the newspaper that the ruling Popular Party had been illegally financing itself for at least 20 yaars, receiving cash donations from construction firms and other businesses in exchange for contracts from administrations run by the party.

The fallout from the report further continued on Tuesday as one of Barcenas’s close confidants that the ex-treasurer of the ruling party has more documents in his possession, which “could being down the government.”

Back in January, however, another local daily El Pais also published photocopied extracts of the same ledger, stirring similar protest rallies.