Ex-IMF Chief’s Fall Sparks Disbelief Mixed With Cynicism

Spaniards reacted with a mixture of disbelief and cynicism to the detention on Thursday night of Rodrigo Rato, the former finance minister whose stewardship of Bankia SA brought the country to the brink of collapse in 2012.

Members of the governing People’s Party were left “speechless” by the images of their former colleague, who led Spain into the euro before becoming managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Esteban Gonzalez Pons, the party’s deputy general secretary, said in a television interview on Telecinco. Rato was escorted from his home in the exclusive Madrid neighborhood of Salamanca and driven away by customs agents in front of a forest of television cameras.