AFP/Madrid

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy will address parliament on a slush fund scandal rocking his conservative Popular Party on August 1, the head of the assembly said yesterday.
Rajoy bowed to pressure from the main opposition Socialists, which had threatened a no-confidence vote if he refused to address parliament on the issue, on Monday and announced that he would appear in the assembly but did not specify the date.
“The date will almost certainly be August 1, a Thursday, and we will start at 9am,” Spain’s parliament chairman, Jesus Posada, told reporters.
The scandal first erupted in January when a newspaper published copies of account ledgers purportedly showing irregular payments to top party members including Rajoy who has led the Popular Party since 2004.
Rajoy has denied receiving illegal payments and has said he will not step down over the affair.
But pressure on Rajoy has mounted after former People’s Party treasurer Luis Barcenas was jailed last month while he is under investigation for running the slush fund and having huge secret Swiss bank accounts.
Barcenas testified in court on June 15 that Rajoy received 25,000 euros ($33,000) in cash in 2010.
Earlier this month centre-right daily newspaper El Mundo published friendly text messages purportedly sent by Rajoy to Barcenas from May 2011 to March 2013, some two months after the scandal erupted.
“Luis, I understand, be strong. I will call you tomorrow. Best wishes,” said one of the messages from Rajoy to Barcenas, dated January 18 when El Mundo first published allegations over the slush fund.
Nearly nine in 10 Spaniards, 89.1%, feel Rajoy should explain himself in parliament over the scandal, according to a poll published on Sunday in El Mundo.
The survey also found that just under two-thirds (65.6%) of respondents believed Rajoy had received payments, with 19.6% saying the opposite.
Until now Rajoy has used the absolute majority his party won in a landslide election victory in 2011 to block calls for him to face questions in parliament.
Opposition Socialist leader Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba has threatened to introduce a motion of censure against Rajoy if he does not appear.
Rubalcaba told the centre-left daily El Pais on Sunday that Rajoy “cannot continue to govern if he does not explain” the scandal in parliament.
Rajoy has batted off calls to resign over the affair as he fights a crippling recession and an unemployment rate of 27%.
The grey-bearded premier has denied any wrongdoing in the controversy, which first erupted in January when a newspaper published copies of account ledgers purportedly showing payments to top party members.