In Spain Libertas has brought together three parties, JANE WALKERwrites from Madrid
LIBERTAS: CIUDADANOS de España(Citizens of Spain), a loose coalition of three minuscule centre-left regional parties, was launched in Madrid last week in a hastily convened press conference to coincide with the visit to Spain of British politician Robin Mathews of Libertas UK.
Libertas: Ciudadanos de Españais made up of the Catalan-based Partido de Ciudadanos(Citizens' Party), which campaigns against Catalan nationalism and wants closer ties to the central government; the Social Democratic Party (PSD), formed in 2007 by a few disaffected socialists; and the even smaller Pueblo de Salamanca, which is based in that city and, unlike the Citizens' Party, is opposed to central government intervention.
Still in its infancy, the group has named only two candidates for the June 7th European elections, and at last week’s conference it was clear that many of its aims and ambitions still need to be ironed out and its organisation was still decidedly disorganised.
Mr Mathews said he was representing Declan Ganley who was unable to be present. But his speech was given in English and few of the 40 or so Spanish journalists there understood what he was saying.
Libertas: Ciudadanos de Españais led by the colourful and controversial Miguel Durán who has been blind from infancy and, as a Braille print operator, shot to fame in the 1990s at only 32 when he was appointed director-general of ONCE, a non-government organisation representing blind and disabled people.
Under his leadership ONCE became an immensely powerful and wealthy organisation with fingers in many financial pies. Mr Durán himself acquired immense wealth.
He left ONCE to become head of Tele 5, and failed to notice the irony of a blind man running one of the country’s largest television channels. In 1998 he was charged with insider trading and other financial irregularities. The shadow of these accusations hung over him until he was acquitted by the Supreme Court last summer.
Unlike some other European Libertas candidates, Mr Durán is pro-European. His gripe is the way Europe is being run, and he intends to campaign for greater transparency, a greater say for the people, and more control over MEPs’ expenses.