Nobody will be surprised to hear that Spain dropped ten slots in the Corruption Perceptions Index for 2013. To watch the Spanish midday news is to witness a litany of corruption scandals, after all.

Transparency International, the anti-graft organization, runs the said index based its conclusions on the impact left by corruption scandals rocking the governing party, PP, and the Spanish Royal Family.

However, corruption also dogs the Andalusian regional government and the Andalusian branch of the national trade union, UGT.

Spain came in second, together with Gambia, Mali, Guinea-Bissau and Libya (great company) as big losers in the fight against corruption, whilst the biggest loser was Syria – at least Syria has the excuse of a civil war going on, mind.

Perhaps little or none of these cases of corruption would have come to light had it not been for the enduring economic crisis here; whilst there was plenty of money sloshing around, nobody was really that bothered, but it is a different story now. In fact, the very root of the building bubble was also the incubator for so much corruption.

But the really sickening part of this glutinous affair is the fact that Spanish politicians just don’t resign, even when there is sufficient evidence to convince a judge that there is a case against them. Their party chiefs mutter sentences about “I would stick my hand in the fire for this virtuous man,” whilst stamping their feet before the cameras demanding “innocent until proven guilty.”

The completely inadequate transparency laws that are going through Parliament entirely fail to give citizens the sort of access to public spending information that other European nations enjoy.

In fact, Spain was the only European Union nation without such a law, astoundingly.

(News: Spain)