How Rajoy moved to quash suspect appointments

Suspicions of nepotism within the upper echelons of the Popular Party have presented Mariano Rajoy with the first internal crisis of his time in office. Last week, the prime minister halted at the last minute two appointments to high-paying posts on the board of the company that manages the national electricity grid, Red Eléctrica (REE).

The men nominated for the positions were Ignacio López del Hierro, the husband of PP party secretary general and regional premier of Castilla-La Mancha, María Dolores de Cospedal, and Alberto Nadal, the brother of Álvaro Nadal, the director of Rajoy’s economic office.

Both Del Hierro and Nadal later announced they would be renouncing the posts after a backlash when the appointments were initially announced.

Rajoy, according to party sources, made his displeasure with Cospedal most plain as he attempts to keep up an image of transparency in the highest spheres of his party after a series of damaging corruption scandals marked his time on the opposition bench.

Government sources say that Del Hierro would never have been appointed to the board of Red Eléctrica without the say-so of Rajoy. It is also believed that Cospedal’s husband would not have turned down the job had there not been rumblings of discontent from the La Moncloa seat of government. REE board members are paid some 180,000 euros a year.

Cospedal’s circle rubbishes that version, saying that at no time did the PP secretary general receive a direct phone call and that Del Hierro made his decision of his own free will so as not to inconvenience his wife. “Anybody who says any different is lying,” Cospedal’s advisors stated.

To reinforce the point, the same sources highlighted the case of the PP number two’s brother, Ricardo de Cospedal, who is expected to be named president of the Carolina Foundation before too long, a post that comes with a 70,000-euro salary.

In the case of her brother there is not expected to be any volte-face as the appointment does not damage Cospedal in any way. In the case of her husband, Cospedal “did not think it would be used [against her] politically,” the sources said.

The government’s version of events is that either Rajoy himself or Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría ensured their discontent registered with Cospedal.

The appointment of former politicians and people close to the government to public companies is standard procedure for all incoming administrations. However, Del Hierro had previously angered some in the PP by pushing for a place on the board of EADS, a European company that builds airplanes. Del Hierro is heavily involved in the savings bank sector and sits on various boards.

Little by little, Rajoy is replacing high-office holders with links to the former Socialist government with those aligned with his own conservative grouping. José Folgado, a member of the PP government of José María Aznar, was recently named president of Red Eléctrica directly by the Rajoy administration.