Spain PM faces calls to resign over slush fund scandal

Spain's PM Mariano Rajoy faced calls to step down over a slush fund scandal roiling his ruling Popular Party, the issue blew up again after the publication of friendly mobile text messages he purportedly sent to the disgraced treasurer at the heart of the affair. The leader of Spain's main opposition Socialist Party, Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba, said he was severing all contact with the prime minister and his party on Saturday. "Given the unsustainable political situation in Spain, the Socialist Party calls for the immediate resignation of Mariano Rajoy as head of the government," he told reporters in Madrid. "Mr Rajoy's conduct in this situation can be summarised quite simply: silence, lies, and after what we have learned today, collusion, extremely serious collusion," Rubalcaba said. Dozens of protesters, outraged by the corruption allegations at a time of recession and record unemployment, rallied outside the Popular Party's Madrid headquarters, chanting "Thieves!" and "Here is Ali Babi's cave!". The centre-right daily El Mundo newspaper published images of the alleged text messages between Rajoy and Luis Barcenas, the former ruling party treasurer who is in pre-trial detention as part of a separate corruption inquiry.