Spain: “Wanted: The Ones Responsible for the Crisis”

This post is part of our special coverage Europe in Crisis.

Following the departure of Rodrigo Rato as chairman of the financial institution Bankia, with over a million euros in indemnity payments and without any kind of explanation as to why the bank has ended up in its current state, groups of activists linked to the 15M movement have created a digital platform called 15mparato [es] (which literally means “15M for Rato”, but “rato” in Spanish also means “quite a while”: “15M for a while”). With this digital project they aim to follow the Icelandic model and make the people responsible for the crisis accountable, and even to be prosecuted for how they managed the financial institutions which have caused the current socioeconomic crisis.

The hashtag #nurembergfinanciero (#financialnuremberg) has been created on Twitter to raise awareness of the causes and the culprits of the crisis:

@DRYmadridLos crímenes económicos deberían ser tipificados como de lesa humanidad. Esta crisis es producto de un plan macabro #nurembergfinanciero

@DRYmadrid: Economic crimes should be categorised as crimes against humanity. This crisis is the product of a macabre plan #nurembergfinanciero

@Psicodromo: Se buscan para el ‪#NurembergFinanciero‬ pic.twitter.com/HeBk24w4

@Psicodromo: Wanted for the ‪#FinancialNuremberg pic.twitter.com/HeBk24w4

Chief executives of banks and their indemnities.

Meanwhile the staging of #15MpaRato [es] was being prepared on Twitter, with the aim of exposing to public opinion the abysmal management by the now-resigned president of Bankia and ex-president of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), from which he also resigned early with his mandate attracting public criticism this week.

@madriloniaSino es él ¿Quién? Si no es ahora ¿Cuándo? Si no somos todas ¿Quiénes? Desmontando a un estafador #15MpaRato #hagamoscomoIslandia

@madrilonia: If it's not him, who? If it's not now, when? If not all of us, who? Bringing down a fraudster #15MpaRato #hagamoscomoIslandia (#let'scopyIceland)

Extract from the website of 15mparato [es]:

Bankia no dura ni dos años; ¿Cómo puede ser que #RR [Rodrigo Rato] deje su cargo sin más, a toda prisa y recibiendo una indemnización millonaria (2,1 millones de euros) sin que nadie haya preguntado institucionalmente absolutamente nada antes, nadie haya pedido ninguna explicación, nadie haya exigido ninguna investigación? La clase política española está de acuerdo en tapar cualquier cosa que haya podido suceder y, lo más preocupante, volverá a hacerlo.

¿Por qué se sigue contando con #RR y su opinión económica si salió del FMI sin acabar su mandato y con un informe demoledor en contra de su gestión en el terrible momento en el que se desencadenó esta “crisis”?

¿Por qué Bankia en su breve existencia bajo la presidencia de #RR ha sido el banco más implacable con los hipotecados damnificados, en cuanto a no permitir las daciones en pago?

Bankia didn't even last for two years; how can it be that #RR [Rodrigo Rato] leaves his post just like that, as quickly as possible and with a millionaire indemnity payment (2.1 million euros) with nobody institutionally asking anything else at all, nobody asking for any explanation, nobody demanding an investigation? The Spanish political class has agreed to cover up anything which might have happened, and the most worrying thing is that it will continue to do so.

Why were they still relying on #RR and his economic opinion at the terrible time when this “crisis” erupted when he left the IMF without finishing his mandate and with a devastating report against his management?

Why was Bankia, in its brief existence under the presidency of #RR, the bank which was most relentless with its toxic mortgages as regards not allowing datio pro soluto (handing back the keys to the lender and ending the mortgage agreement)?

Wanted: Rodrigo Rato, for causing the crisis and for looting Bankia. Image: Antonio Marín Segovia.

The citizen complaints platform miniLeaks [es] has envisioned a five-year citizen plan (2013-2017) with the following objectives are pursued:

  • Year one (2013): Online mechanism to gather information that any citizen may have on Rodrigo Rato; a legal and informative mechanism. Objective of year one, on the anniversary of the 15M: put into circulation more than 4000 organised leaks and all the necessary evidence, as well as good jokes, images and optical illusions with true information.
  • Year two (2014): Rodrigo is now the talk of the town. His impunity has ended. It is now unbearable for Rodrigo Rato to live in Spain. Rodrigo in exile.
  • End of the five-year plan, year 2017: If Rato is responsible for defrauding the people of Spain (as a minister, as a banker or in any other capacity), we will ensure that he is convicted on the basis of the evidence presented.

This post is part of our special coverage Europe in Crisis.

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