Lottery win lands Spanish mayors with big headache

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/14/lottery-win-spanish-mayors-el-gordo-headache-cash

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An effort to spread a little cheer in northern Spain has instead pitted hundreds of small-town mayors against each other and sparked a debate that has gone all the way to the office of the national public prosecutor.

Vicente Producciones Artísticas, a company that organises local fiestas, marked the 2013 holidays the same way it had for more than 15 years: it handed out Christmas gift packages to its clients, including the mayors of more than 300 municipalities and districts. In each package was a calendar and a few small shares of a ticket in El Gordo – the "Fat One" Christmas lottery – a common gift in Spain.

But this year the lottery ticket turned out to be a winner, earning the company's clients an estimated €5m altogether. Most mayors received at least €5,000, with many receiving much more than that.

In crisis-stricken Spain, the initial excitement was dampened by confusion. Who, asked residents, does the money actually belong to?

"All of it will be for my village," Julio Espinosa, of Ruerrero, a municipality of 50 people in the region of Cantabria, told El Pais. The €12,500 he received will go towards local fiestas and supporting the town's elderly people. Espinosa was one of the first mayors to declare his winnings and where it would be going. A handful of mayors soon followed his example.

Just a few miles away, Fernando Fernández, mayor of Valderredible, told reporters that each mayor was free to do "whatever they want to do" with the proceeds, leading many to report he was keeping his gift. Fernández declined to specify how much he had received or to give any interviews.

The company which started it all also weighed in, explaining in a statement that the gifts were given "on a personal level, so that each recipient could use the money in the way they see fit, as a thank you for their work, dedication and collaboration." It refused to comment further.

The winnings – and who they belong to – has dominated the conversations in bars and restaurants in northern Spain. "The majority of us think that the money belongs to the villages," said Xavier Murgui of Valcampoo, an association that represents many of the municipalities involved. "It was villagers who paid the company's contracts."

He was worried that some mayors might get away with keeping the money, as most of the towns were so small that residents could fear speaking out. "People often position themselves in favour of those who are in charge," he said delicately. Another resident put it more bluntly. "If residents don't defend the mayor, maybe next day their cattle will be set loose or their land might catch fire," she told El Pais.

After failing to find a definitive answer in the existing laws, Murgui's group took the issue to the country's public prosecutor. "We just wanted some information from a dependable source on who these prizes actually belong to," he said.

The group was told it would need to go through the court system for answers, he said. "We don't have the funds to take on the case."

The group is instead changing strategies. On Wednesday it will present draft legislation on "good conduct for politicians" to the regional parliament of Cantabria, setting out guidelines on how these – and future – gifts should be handled.

Murgui hopes the changes will also force the company to hand over a list of who received what and, more importantly, how much.

"We've heard rumours of mayors receiving up to €100,000," he said. "We're not talking about small amounts of money here."

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