Politician linked to corruption probe dies in Madrid

By Alyssa McMurtry

MADRID

Prominent Spanish politician Rita Barbera died of a heart attack at a hotel in Madrid on Wednesday morning, local media quoting officials said.

Barbera, 68, was a controversial political figure linked to Spain’s Popular Party. She was named as a suspect in a corruption case involving money laundering in the city of Valencia.

She was the mayor of Valencia between 1991 and 2015 and served as a Spanish senator since 2015.

On Monday, just two days before her death, she testified in the Spanish Supreme Court as part of the corruption probe into money laundering by the Popular Party in Valencia.

Barbera had relentlessly denied the corruption charges, but in September the Popular Party asked her to leave the party due to the scandal in which nearly every Valencian city councilor and adviser also faces charges, according to the Spanish daily, El Pais.

Since September she has held her senate seat as an independent.

The Spanish parliament held a minute of silence for Barbera in the morning, although the far-left Podemos Party walked out before other politicians paid their respects.

Pablo Iglesias, leader of Podemos, told the media that although he regretted the death of any human being, “it was an homage and we aren’t going to participate in an homage to a person whose political trajectory was marked by corruption.”

Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, told the media he had recently spoken to Barbera, and feels “enormously saddened.”

Although Rajoy had been distancing himself from Barbera over the past year, the two had been close and worked together since the 1980s.

“Rita, you’re the best! You’re the mayor that Valencia deserves,” proclaimed Rajoy in a 2015 Popular Party rally in Valencia.

Other Spanish politicians were also mourning Barbera’s death, saying she was a respected politician and emphasize that she was never found guilty of corruption.

“She suffered a totally unjustified witch-hunt,” Jesus Posada, former president of the Spanish parliament, told the media.