Rajoy continues to avoid explaining corruption accusations as opposition threatens censure motion

MADRID, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy continued on Monday morning to avoid giving explanations over the ongoing Barcenas corruption affair in which he and his governing People's Party (PP) are deeply implicated in receiving illegal payments over a period of over a decade.

The revelations of former PP Treasurer Luis Barcenas have been headline news for several months now in Spain after he was discovered to have maintained secret bank accounts in Switzerland containing a total of over 48 million euros.

Meanwhile Spain's liberal El Pais newspaper has published extracts from the accounts kept by Barcenas detailing illegal donations made to the party and payments Barcenas had subsequently made with those contributions.

However, the past week has seen Barcenas, who is now in preventive custody, adopt a tactic of directly implicating high-ranking PP officials, among them Rajoy and PP General Secretary Maria Dolores de Cospedal, in the case, accusing them of accepting illegal cash payments.

This has considerably increased the pressure on Rajoy to speak directly to the Spanish Congress to explain what exactly has happened. Nearly all of the groups in the Spanish Parliament have requested Rajoy speak on Wednesday, while the leader of the Socialist (PSOE) Party, Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba, has promised his party will table a 'no-confidence' motion if Rajoy refuses to speak.

However, as he attended the Forum Europa on Monday morning, held in the Ritz Hotel, Rajoy again avoided the opportunity to attempt and clear up the scandal or confirm whether or not he would speak to Congress, focusing instead on economic issues and his party's program of reforms.

"The most necessary decisions are the ones which are the most difficult to take," he said, although his words were in the context of the economy rather than the clouds hanging over his party and his leadership.

He has another chance to confirm his presence or not in Congress on Monday afternoon, when he will hold a joint press conference with Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta at his official residence in the Palacio de Moncloa and it is certain the 'Barcenas case' will be the focus of the majority of the questions, whether or not Rajoy raises to the bait remains to be seen.

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