Supreme Court to investigate Andalucía ex-Presidents Chaves and Griñán on ERE case

Other former top Junta councillors and many business people also involved

Manuel Chaves (l)
José Antonio Griñán (r)

SEVILLE -- Judge Mercedes Alaya sent documents about the ERE case in Andalucía to the Supreme Court in the belief that there may be a case to answer regarding bribery and malfeasance. Now the Court confirms that it needs to look into the case, that it sees the same indications of irregularities as the judge. Several politicians, former councillors and diverse business people are allegedly involved. While the case has been around for at least a year, the two top men of the PSOE and most of the rest of the impugned have managed to keep under the radar, mainly because they are aforados (with parliamentary protection). Manuel Chaves and others have asked to appear in court voluntarily. Griñán had not yet done so at time of writing. This case is likely to become a cause celèbre for the opposition PP party in Andalucía, as it is being accosted from all sides in large and significant corruption cases all over the country (Click on CORRUPTION in the sidebar cloud of labels to get the idea.). The PSOE party has refused to pay litigation costs for the pair or any of the others involved because 'they are innocent'. 

Judge Alaya, the new star judge

Said to be 'horrified' by her popularity

(infolibre.es)

SEVILLE -- First there was Judge Garzón, who was pretty much ousted from his job in a major court in Madrid for getting too close to unseemly behaviour by some politicians (he had also been a Minister in the Zapatero PSOE government). Now there's Judge Mercedes Alaya, who is handling several major cases out of her Seville courtroom. Among these are the ERE Case (about dodgy employment dismissals), the false billing for adult education courses known as the Facturas Falsas case, etc. etc. In the ERE case, she has already officially charged 299 people, about which there are many complaints, mainly from the Junta de Andalucía (majorly implicated in the case) and the Tribunal Superior de Justicia de Andalucía (High Court in Andalucía), her boss. Another significant case is that regarding the sale of the Real Betis Balompié football club; and a further one is that of Mercasevilla, from which is derived the very serious ERE case but considered separately, a case of extorsion against two business people who wanted to set up a catering school on land belonging to the city. In the meantime, Judge Alaya appears in the media, usually with photographs similar to the one illustrating this item.

Andalucía’s education disaster (MÁS ABAJO EN ESPAÑOL: Andalucía, desastre en educación)

OPINION (by Alberto Bullrich) -- A friend’s son was told to leave his classroom at the village Adult Education Centre the other day. He called his mother in tears; she went to speak with the teacher, who told her that the ‘head office’ had denied the boy, 17, permission to take the exams at the end of the course because he was born in January, after the ‘adult’ deadline of December 31. He would have to wait a whole year, though he was offered other unrealistic alternatives. Fair enough, he was born ‘too late’ so he is not officially an adult yet. But why was he eager to attend these classes?

Coalition negotiates pact on illegal homes

This will happen to some houses

SEVILLA – Sources in the Government of Andalucía say that, if two vital items in the region’s 2015 budget are settled (See this week’s article Health and Education to be saved from Budget cuts) and ‘minor issues’ are sorted, both parties (PSOE AND IU) agree that new legislation is needed to ‘legalise’ between 20,000 and 25,000 homes or houses that were built ‘illegally’ during the construction boom, and bought in good faith, most often by foreigners, at least in Andalucía. This subject is supposedly ‘close to the heart’ of Junta President Susana Díaz, which is not necessarily a guarantee of its coming to fruition. More on ‘Regularisation of Illegal Property’ by Rafael Berdaguer Abogados:

Only Health and Education to be saved from Budget cuts in 2015

'New La Línea Hospital' still 'under
construction after 5 years' hiatus

SEVILLA – The Junta de Andalucía’s governing coalition (PSOE and IU) last week gave another twist to the draft on the region’s 2015 Budget. While, yet again, the budget is surrounded by difficulties in coalition priorities, principally regarding the central government’s (PP) rule that all the regions’ deficits must decrease by 0.7% and also as the result of the resources coming from the State are down by €600mm, neither party foresees ‘great clashes’ with the accounts, though they do warn that it will be ‘the little things’ that could be the problems. In any case, the Treasury is aiming at ring fencing monies for education and health, so that when the working committees present the negotiated figures for the Junta’s approval, these two items will have the same amount of money as this year, at least. That is the objective, but neither party is willing to give assurances that it will be so. (Ed. Note: Please forgive a large measure of scepticism regarding these promises.)