Julio Segura, the former president of the CNMV, Spain's national stock market regulator, appeared in a Valencia court yesterday to defend how he dealt with preferential shareholders.
With their habit of avoiding hard tasks, first Zapatero and now Rajoy, rationalized their decisions to not fulfill their promises to ensure market transparency and preferred shareholder rights. Under the government's wing, Segura did not say not to something that he could have stopped.
What happened with preferential shares and the fact that Segura knew what happened but remained silent show that the CNMV is not really an independent overseer. If it wants to fulfill its role faitfully, it needs to separate itself from political power.
