The Minister Who Won’t Resign

SPN Interior Minister OnLThe Interior Minister, Jorge Fernández Díaz, has accepted the resignation of his Director of Communications, Albert Gimeno. Sr. Fernández, however, he did not offer his own resignation.

This comes about after the Ministry of the Interior announced on its Twitter account that they were going to raid the offices of the lawyers who represent imprisoned ETA terrorist… half an hour before the raid actually took place. When the Guardia Civil got there, the computers were missing as was a lot of paperwork. Furthermore, an official press release had been issued simultaneously with the Tweet.

You can image what the opposition had to say.

The Governing party, when they were in the opposition, made El Caso Faisán one of their prime lines of attack against the then socialist Interior Minister. El Caso Faisán is the case concerning an unofficial tip-off that had allegedly been ordered by the Police HQ, warning that they were about to raid a bar frequented by ETA members called El Faisán (The Pheasant) in Bilbao.

This tip-off was made right in the middle of negotiations between ETA and the socialist government and many believe that it was done because it would have set back the peace process. In any case, all the ETA members that the raid would have captured were later arrested.

Now it’s the conservative PP in power and this huge blunder – if it is indeed unintentional – takes place and the conservative Government appears to have fallen into another bout of amnesia concerning their constant and ferocious criticism of El Caso Faisán

The Minister attributes this latest incident to a “human error,” and praises the “professionalism” of the resigning Head of Communications, who, says the Minister, confused internal memos with those for publication.

This is far from the first controversy involving the Minister, but certainly the biggest. He also received immense criticism for implying that abortion and ETA terrorism had “something to do with each other.” He also said that same-sex marriages put the species in danger of extinction – he has strong religious views.

Editorial Comment: If it had been a socialist Minister at the helm and this had happened, it goes without saying that Sr. Fernández Díaz would be demanding his resignation.

And besides, who can seriously expect a government minister to resign if the Prime Minister himself hasn’t stepped down after SMS exchanges between the PM and the imprisoned ex-PP Secretary, Sr. Bárcenas came to light, expressing support and saying that he was doing all that he could for him? The PM had categorically stated before Parliament just weeks before that he had not had any contact with Sr Bárcenas whatsoever in a long time.

(News: Spain)

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