The outgoing head of Spain's financial regulator today launched a rare and outspoken attack on the parties involved in the marathon 13-month takeover battle for the country's biggest utility, Endesa.
Manuel Conthe, who announced he would quit as chairman of CNMV at the climax of the saga, told a parliamentary committee that the Spanish and Italian bidders for Endesa should face sanctions over their actions and that his own deputy should resign because of his close ties with the government.
The takeover drama ended earlier this month when the German utility giant E.on withdrew its 42bn bid after striking a deal with rivals Enel and Acciona, which had jointly amassed nearly 50% of the company's shares.
But in an hour-long speech peppered with poetic allusions ranging from archangels to marathon runners, Mr Conthe said he decided to resign after a majority on the regulatory board defeated a proposal to consider sanctions against Enel and Acciona for Spanish violating stock market rules.
He likened the behaviour of the Italian-Spanish tandem to marathon runners who entered race mid-course after taking a short-cut through the backstreets of the city.
"They decided to compete in mid-race and they weren't even signed up," he said. "What if the referee didn't decide to expel them?"
The referee - that is, the Spanish regulatory commission known as the CNMV - did not penalise the runners because government officials who serve on CNMV board, namely the treasury chief and deputy director of the Bank of Spain.
"They should not vote to avoid a conflict of interest and they should leave the room so as not to influence the board psychologically," he said.
Instead, the board devised what he called a "Spanish-style solution", a reference to Spain's tolerance for political meddling and an obsession with legal minutia rather respect for the spirit of the law.
Conthe said his former deputy Carlos Arenillas, was figuratively and literally wed to the government of Socialist prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, which had opposed a complete German take-over of the national energy jewel and was widely seen to encourage the prevailing Italian-Spanish offer.
Mr Arenillas is married to the Spanish minister of education and maintains close relationship to Mr Zapatero's economic policy advisers.
Mr Conthe's refusal to disappear quietly into the woodwork on resignation met with fierce criticism by the government, which accused him of creating an embarrassing "spectacle" that hurt the credibility of the institution. They had tried unsuccessfully to block this public airing of grievances.
But throughout his appearance, the silver-haired, poker-faced Conthe insisted that his words would help to make the stock market regulator stronger, more transparent and independent.
He concluded by referring to a quote by Golden Age poet Lope de Vega about blaming the messenger: "What is it about me that my announcements are troubling?"