Francisco Camps- suited and now booted

The current President of the Generalitat, Francisco Camps, and the next President of the Generalitat, Alberto Fabra, yesterday held a meeting at the Palau de la Generalitat, where they discussed various issues of importance to the Community and the district of the Vega Baja.

Today, King Juan Carlos I will officially appoint the President of the Generalitat Valenciana and tomorrow there will be the act of repossession.

In February 2009, Francisco Camps was implicated in a scandal known as the Gürtel Case relating to an alleged criminal network controlled by businessman Francisco Correa(Gürtel" is the German translation for the businessman's surname, Correa/belt).

In March 2009, Camps was one of several PP figures accused by magistrate Baltasar Garzón of accepting bribes. In particular, Garzón alleged that Camps had received €12,000 towards a tailor's bill from an associate of Correa.

For the next two years Camps claimed that he paid for the clothes himself. The case against Camps was transferred to a local court in Valencia which, in August 2009, ruled that Camps had not committed a crime. In May 2010 Camps' bribery case reopened at the High Court in Madrid which ruled that there was enough evidence to bring a case against him. Camps was re-elected as President of Valencia in May 2011 even though the case threatened to undermine his political career.

On 20 July 2011, Camps resigned as Valencian premier and leader of the Valencian Partido Popular in order to avoid standing trial while in office. He has continued to maintain his innocence although he has said that he may have received presents.

Camps says he has resigned for the benefit of Mariano Rajoy, so the PP can win the General Election, but previously he had bragged about how he always had legitimacy from the ballot box. Most believe the real reason that he is going is because he finds himself unable to hold his hands up and say that he accepted some gifts from companies to which his team was handing out valuable construction and other public works tenders. His claims of innocence will be tested before a jury. Admitting guilt now would be a step too far for Francisco Camps.