Tag: Mariano Rajoy

• Monday, February 3rd 2014 - 19:54 UTC

  Spain's El Mundo editor steps down; Rajoy's administration denies any involvement

  

  The influential founding editor of Spain’s second-biggest newspaper, El Mundo, stepped down on Thursday after a decline in circulation and a series of revelations of alleged corruption in the ruling party.

• Saturday, January 18th 2014 - 04:58 UTC

  Catalonia lawmakers have asked Madrid for a referendum on the region's future

  

  Lawmakers from the Spanish region of Catalonia voted to seek a referendum on breaking away from Spain on Thursday, setting themselves up for a battle with an implacably opposed central government in Madrid. The Catalan Parliament in Barcelona voted 87 to 43, with 3 abstentions, to send a petition to the national parliament seeking the power to call a popular vote on the region’s future.

• Friday, January 3rd 2014 - 06:02 UTC

  Catalonia president takes vote on independence case to EU heads of government

  

  Catalonia's president has called on European Union prime ministers for support as the region seeks a vote on independence in November this year, the source of an increasingly bitter fight with Spain's central government.

• Monday, December 16th 2013 - 17:16 UTC

  Spain finally prepared to tackle political corruption: bill to control political parties finances

  

  Spain’s government proposed a law to control more tightly the financial activities of political parties, after corruption scandals in recent years involving both left and right. The law will ban legal and corporate entities from making donations to parties, and banks will no longer be allowed to cancel their debts or negotiate with them interest rates that would be below market levels. Donations are currently allowed up to a limit of 100,000 Euros a year.

• Friday, December 13th 2013 - 13:14 UTC

  Madrid vows to block any independence referendum in Catalonia

  

  The Spanish government has vowed to block plans by parties in Catalonia to hold a referendum on independence on 9 November of next year. “The poll will not be held,” Justice Minister Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon told journalists moments after Catalonia's President, Artur Mas, announced a deal.

• Saturday, November 30th 2013 - 19:42 UTC

  Rajoy meets PM Cameron and states the diplomatic bag incident in Gibraltar border 'resolved'

  

  Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy drew a line under the diplomatic bag incident at the Gibraltar border following a conversation with his British counterpart, David Cameron. The two men spoke on the side lines of an EU summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, although their conversation centered mostly on Scotland and Catalonia, according to Spanish reports. “This (incident) has been resolved” said the Spanish president.

• Friday, November 22nd 2013 - 20:21 UTC

  “Excellent relations with UK” but “tough controls on Gibraltar” announced Rajoy

  

  Spain’s President Mariano Rajoy has declared his intent to sustain both good relations with Britain and tough controls on Gibraltar at the border. The remarks came in an interview with Radio Nacional de España in which he defended Spain’s attitude to Gibraltar.

• Monday, October 21st 2013 - 07:01 UTC

  Too many summits: Ibero-American countries decide to meet every other year

  

  In a poorly attended Ibero-American summit held during two days in Panama, the heads of state and government from the Americas, plus Spain and Portugal, decided that instead of holding annual meetings they would get together every other year, starting after the 2014 summit in Veracruz, Mexico.

• Thursday, September 26th 2013 - 21:36 UTC

  Spain out of recession “but not out of the crisis”, Rajoy tells US financial media

  

  President Mariano Rajoy making the round of financial media in New York this week, said Spain had emerged from recession in the third quarter with estimated economic growth of 0.1% to 0.2% forecast and 0.5% to 1% in 2014.

• Thursday, September 26th 2013 - 21:29 UTC

  Rajoy calls on UK for dialogue on Gibraltar, last ‘colonial anachronism’ in Europe

  

  Addressing the UN General Assembly Spanish President Mariano Rajoy described the Gibraltar situation as a ‘colonial anachronism’ and criticized UK’s dialogue denial attitude on the Rock’s sovereignty. The speech comes at a tense moment in Gibraltar and Spain relations, but according to the Madrid press, Rajoy was less forceful than expected.