Spain’s Socialist party in Andalucia has announced plans to set up an anti-corruption office.
The announcement was greeted as a “joke” by opposition parties.
The ridicule centred around two facts. The first was that the surprise announcement came less than three weeks before regional elections are due.
The second was that Susana Díaz, who made the announcement, is from the Socialist Workers’ party (PSOE) which is implicated in a massive fraud case involving public funds.
"I want to pull down the walls and let it be known how every euro is spent," Ms Díaz declared. No mention was made of the so-called ERE case in which more than 200 people from the government administration, trades unions and businesses are accused of diverting hundreds of millions of euros away from unemployed assistance and training courses.
Her predecessors in Andalusia, Manuel Chaves and José Antonio Griñán, have been summoned by the Supreme Court as suspects in the case.
The elections in Spain’s most populous region had already been brought forward by a year by Ms Díaz. Popular thinking is that the move was to counter the increasing sway of the far-Left Podemos party.
"There was no transparency in government when people were quite happy to accept gifts for approving training courses and include their relatives in fraudulent redundancy schemes," said Podemos candidate Teresa Rodríguez.
Recent polls indicate that the Socialist party will win, but with 35%. The party has governed Andalucia since 1982.
The national governing PP polled 23% with Podemos gaining 17%, which would be enough to deny the PSOE a governing majority.
