Madrid PP won’t pursue senator over Swiss account

The Madrid branch of the ruling conservative Popular Party on Friday said “in no way” did it plan to start sanction proceedings against now former regional assembly member and senator Francisco Granados after it emerged he had a bank account in Switzerland that at one point had over 1.5 million euros deposited in it.

Granados on Friday tendered his resignation “with immediate effect” from the Madrid regional assembly. Since the regulations of the Madrid assembly state that the region’s representative in the upper house must also be a regional lawmaker, Granados also automatically lost his seat in the Senate. Granados claimed the money in the Swiss account came from what he had earned as an investment banker before he entered politics.

The Madrid government’s justice commissioner Salvador Victoria said he had spoken to the party’s president and former premier, Esperanza Aguirre, and that neither of them were aware of where reports of sanctions against Granados had emerged. He said in any case, “apart from being unjustified,” sanction procedures did not form part of the statutes of the Madrid branch of the PP.