A country where power always brings money

There are several ways to get rich. In Spain, one is to achieve power. That's all. Apparently, when you are in charge, the money comes by itself.

You don't have to go back very far to find examples. The 20th century, from its beginnings, is full of them. Alfonso XIII was king since he was born, in 1886 (Alfonso XII had died when his wife, Maria Cristina of Habsburg, was pregnant), but he assumed the crown in 1902, when he turned 16. Spain had just lost Cuba and pessimism reigned, along with a movement called "regeneracionismo" (it was necessary to end the caciquismo, electoral corruption, misappropriation of public funds, etcetera). Alfonso XIII promised to restore "the dignity of Spain".

Little was known about the lost "dignity". But Alfonso XIII accumulated a considerable fortune during his reign. That friendly and campechano king was a shareholder of the company that promoted the Madrid Metro, a hidden shareholder of a company that fostered greyhound racing and, probably, an even more hidden shareholder (through straw men) of arms companies and mines in Morocco.

Intellectuals like Miguel de Unamuno and Vicente Blasco Ibáñez affirmed that the monarchy's support for the Africanist military – generally quite foolish – and for the colonial wars in Morocco – as disastrous as they were unpopular – was ultimately due to the king's economic interests.

In these adventures, Alfonso XIII always had the enthusiastic support of Álvaro de Figueroa, Count of Romanones, three-time president of the council of ministers, a multimillionaire landowner, and one of the main shareholders of the Minas del Rif company.

There was an investigation after the fall of the monarchy in 1931, which clarified few things. Any compromising papers had disappeared. In any case, Alfonso XIII's known assets had gone from 8 to 40 million pesetas since the beginning of his reign.

The Second Republic, brief and unstable, did not allow for great business deals from power. However, the dictatorship that followed the 1936 coup d'état and the Spanish Civil War did provide – immense – opportunities. Dictator Francisco Franco and his family amassed a colossal fortune (from the Pazo de Meirás to Carmen Polo's jewelry collection) with no greater effort than accepting "gifts". From Franco downwards, systemic corruption prevailed.

After the death of the dictator and the coronation of Juan Carlos I, as campechano as his grandfather Alfonso, the so-called Transition began, a process by which the power of the Franco dictatorship accepted the creation of democratic structures in exchange for guarantees on the preservation of its privileges. At that time, everything had to be improvised. And everything was accepted if the purpose seemed good. Juan Carlos I obtained money from the Shah of Persia to finance UCD and began to collect commissions from Saudi oil. The PSOE received irregular financing from Germany. The common thread of corruption related to power was not cut at any time.

Of the current emeritus and his fondness for money, we already know enough. But once the parliamentary democracy system was established, the parties (from the Popular to the Socialist, passing through Convergence) have been caught red-handed more than once. in fraganti.

And, as we said, it has continued to be demonstrated that when you are in charge, the money comes all by itself. Felipe González was a labor lawyer in 1982, when he assumed the presidency of the Spanish government. Today, after his tenure as a director for Gas Natural Fenosa (now Naturgy) and for Boluda Towage – part of Vicente Boluda's shipping empire – and his marriage to Mar García-Vaquero (to whom Forbes attributes a fortune close to 400 million euros), he lives between the Salamanca neighborhood of Madrid and his estate in Cáceres.

(As a brief note, José Bono, former president of Castilla-La Mancha and former socialist minister, has also accumulated a notable fortune, with financial and real estate investments in Spain, Morocco, and the Dominican Republic. As an even briefer note, Felipe González has a Dominican passport.)

As for José María Aznar, things are going very well for him. When he arrived at Moncloa in 1996, he was a tax inspector on leave. He is now a director of News Corporation and personal advisor to Rupert Murdoch, the press magnate who boosted Donald Trump's political career. He also advises law firms and Barrick Gold Corporation, a company dedicated to gold mining. He owns a luxury villa in Pozuelo de Alarcón and another in Marbella.

Mariano Rajoy does not seem to have dedicated himself, like his predecessors, to accumulating board memberships: he has returned to his former job as a property registrar. We will learn more about José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (good, bad, or very bad) in the coming days.