Parliament launches ‘Operation Transparency’

Published on 9 September 2011 at 12:12

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"The assets of our Members of Parliament” will henceforth be public knowledge, announces Público. As of 8 September, Spanish Parliamentarians’ declarations of their assets have been published on the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate websites. Noting that members of the public rushing to check out the site partially swamped the server for a few hours, the daily remarks that the initiative is a “necessary and due” exercise in transparency which should apply to all positions paid for from the public purse, “starting with the royal family and extending to the municipal counsellors in every town.”

Two months ahead of the elections on November 20, the Socialist candidate Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba has declared assets of close to one million euros, while his conservative rival, Mariano Rajoy, has almost 600,000. Outgoing Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has only declared a house under construction in his hometown of León and assets of around 158,000 euros, from an annual salary of 66,000 euros, concludes Público.

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