News, January-February 2011

News theme: Corruption

At PrayforSpain we do not regularly report on a topic which sadly generates Spanish newspaper headlines every day, that of corruption. During the construction boom of the past decade there appear to have been many occurrences of builders making friends with municipal and regional politicians and civil servants responsible for planning and finances. A multitude of cases have come to court, with new arrests or revelations seemingly almost daily. But the most extraordinary case appears to be that of the director of the Palau de la Música Catalana, a concert hall in Barcelona. He turned himself in for having embezzled millions of Euros unknown to anyone and apparently providing finance for a foundation close to a political party, as well as feathering his own nest.

It is probably unnecessary to provide details of such activities on this page, but sadly the corruption in building has been hard felt by foreigners buying their dream home in the sun. Planning permission and all the licences were provided and in order in many locations, so people bought bona fide developments, only to learn later that the municipal authorities had had no right to grant permissions to build on cliff tops and other sites of special interest. In numerous cases, the result is that a change of party in the town hall has led to people losing their 'fully documented' dream homes. In many cases, people have lost, or at least could lose, most of their life savings.