• Bus campaign depicts politicians, bankers party says have corrupted Spain
• PSOE irked over depiction of ex-President Felipe González among ‘corruptos’
Spain’s three-year-old left-wing anti-austerity party Podemos (We Can) has raised eyebrows with a new campaign to denounce graft and corruption in public life and the private-sector, on Monday deploying a brightly painted bus on the streets of Madrid covered caricature-like drawings of well-known politicians, bankers and business leaders that Podemos say have “infected” Spain with kickbacks, bribery and other illicit practices.
Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias say the interwoven relations of the politicians and those who corrupt them amounts to a trama or “plot” and the newly launched urban bus has been accordingly dubbed the “Tramabus” in an effort to shed light on the problem.
The Tramabus immediately raised eyebrows, however, reportedly causing dissent within Podemos own ranks because of the campaign’s resemblance to the recent campaign by ultra-right Catholic group Hazte Oir, which attempted to circulate a bright orange bus in Spanish cities with a transphobic message attacking liberal teaching in Spain’s public schools on the equality and rights of transgender children.
The Tramabus has also irked Socialist party (PSOE), as one of the allegedly corrupt politicians portrayed on the bus is former Spanish President Felipe González, today a kind of PSOE elder statesman, who served as the PSOE’s general secretary from 1974-1997 and remains the longest-serving President of Spain, holding office for four consecutive terms from 1982 to 1996.
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