PP Minister Báñez leaks Socialist layoff plan to press
Opposition cries foul over filtering of party workers’ redundancy to conservative newspaper
The Employment Ministry unlawfully leaked confidential information about an upcoming labor adjustment plan within the Socialist Party, which it emailed to a conservative news outlet.
This information, which by law can only be conveyed to the interested parties, was sent straight from the email account of Minister Fátima Báñez, of the conservative Popular Party.
News of the cost-cutting plan, which will affect over 180 workers at the Socialist Party headquarters in Madrid and regional branches, was published on June 25 in La Razón, a strongly conservative newspaper. The adjustment plan, known in Spain as an ERE, had been filed with the ministry on June 22, as the law mandates.
A ministry spokesman said that "the minister did not send that information," and added that "the ministry never circulates this type of information." Yet a copy of the email to which this newspaper has had access shows that it was sent directly from Báñez's account.
