People's Party leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo (right) with drug dealer Martial Dorado at the mouth of the Vigo River in Galicia, 1995. old photos of him with a drug dealer, saying he didn't know about his criminal activities because Google didn't exist at the time.
Alberto Nuñez Feijoo was forced to back down in the last days of the campaign over his longtime relationship with Marcial Dorado, convicted of drug dealing and money laundering.
Photos of the leader of the main conservative People's Party on a yacht with Dorado began to surface in the 1990s, when he was an official in the regional government, and Dorado was suspected of committing a crime.
Feijoo, 61, who is expected to become Spain's next prime minister after Sunday's general election, admitted to spending time with Dorado some 30 years ago.
Dorado, 73, has already featured in several police investigations from the time. , and amassed a fortune that he spent on a huge mansion, yachts and luxury travel.
Mr. Feijoo stated that he could not have known about Dorado's questionable activities at the time because the Internet did not exist.
“He was not charged at the time. It's easier to find out now because we have the Internet and Google,» Mr. Feijoo said after competing candidates asked him to explain the images, including a 1995 photograph of two men smiling on the yacht Dorado off the coast of their native Galicia.
«For as long as I knew him, this man had not been investigated for drug trafficking,» Mr. Feijoo said.
Dorado, who was first arrested in 1990 on suspicion of running a smuggling operation that smuggled large quantities of tobacco and cocaine into Spain on high-speed motorboats through Galicia's meandering estuaries.
The next Prime Minister of Spain is expected to be Alberto Nunez Feijoo. Photo: JAIME REINA/AFP
“Explain why you had a close friendship with one of the biggest drug traffickers in the world,” said Yolanda Diaz, a government minister and leader of the ultra-left platform Sumar.
Ms. Diaz repeated the question in a televised debate on Wednesday night, but Mr. Feijoo was not around to answer as he chose to skip the question. event.
Cop bribing
First put on trial in 2003, Dorado was eventually found guilty of organized crime, laundering €22 million in human trafficking and bribing police officers. He is currently on a daytime release from prison.
Mr Feijoo, who was a junior official in Galicia in the 1990s and then led the region's government between 2009 and 2002, has positioned himself as a clean alternative to the corruption that has been mired in PP over the past two decades.
«Mistakes of the past»
After Spain's National Court ruled for the third time, that the party benefited from a massive kickback scandal, Mr. Feihoo said last year that the NP «should admit its past mistakes.»
Polls allowed the NP to win Sunday's elections by about five percentage points over Pedro Sanchez's Socialist Party.
Polls are narrowing, and there is little sign that enough swing voters are heeding Mr. Feijoo's call for an absolute majority to avoid seeking support from the far-right Vox party.
The polls put the People's Party on the path to victory over Pedro Sánchez's Socialist Party. Photo: THOMAS COEX/AFP
Mr Feijoo oversaw coalition agreements between PP and Vox in Valencia and Extremadura, as well as a number of city halls in the final weeks after the May regional and local elections.
The conservative said he would prefer to rule with the support of the socialists, but Mr Sanchez says the deal is already done. form a right-wing coalition government.
«PP and Vox are a duo opposed to an agreement between Spaniards,» Mr Sanchez said during a debate on Wednesday.
Not a «close» friendship
Mr Feijoo denied the charge that his friendship with Dorado was «close», despite photos showing the two men made several trips together to Ibiza and the Canary Islands.
In a TV interview 20 Feb. 20, Dorado said he was hurt by Mr. Feijoo's denial of their connection. “If you sleep in my apartment […] and my wife cooks breakfast for you along with other guests, it’s not because she is a maid,” said Dorado.
Свежие комментарии