Spain's Culture Minister Maxim Huerta attends a news conference to announce his resignation in Madrid, Spain June 13, 2018. REUTERS/Juan Medina

MADRID (Reuters) - Spain’s culture minister resigned on Wednesday from a week-old government following local media reports that he had avoided paying taxes while working as a TV journalist 10 years ago.

Maxim Huerta, who was named to the cabinet of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez last week, said he had paid a fine related to his declared income in 2006 and 2008, and was “absolutely innocent”.

“I have paid the fine twice, at the time and now, here,” he told a news conference in Madrid, saying the penalty had resulted from a change in the tax authority’s criteria.

Huerta added that he was fully up to date with his tax payments.

Sanchez toppled his predecessor, Mariano Rajoy, in a confidence vote over a long-running corruption scandal.

El Confidencial newspaper had reported that Huerta had been found to have avoided paying tax amounting to more than 200,000 euros ($235,700).

Spaniards have been enthusiastic so far in their reception of Sanchez’s Socialist government, which broke with six years of right-wing domination and contains more women than men in ministerial posts for the first time in the country’s history.

His party rebounded in opinion polls after taking power, overtaking rivals which had poached its voters in recent years, including market-friendly Ciudadanos and anti-austerity Podemos.

Despite these encouraging signs, Sanchez will have his work cut out to make any major policy changes, as he controls less than a quarter of the seats in parliament. ($1 = 0.8485 euros)</s>Spain’s culture and sports minister Maxim Huerta resigned Wednesday after it emerged he has been fined for tax fraud, in a blow to the Socialist government that took over only last week.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez ousted conservative Mariano Rajoy with a June 1 no-confidence vote in parliament sparked by corruption convictions against former senior officials of his Popular Party (PP).

Sanchez won praise worldwide for appointing a cabinet made up mostly of women as well as for offering to take in a ship with 629 migrants aboard when Italy’s populist government and Malta refused them safe port.

But the string of positive press coverage ended Wednesday when online daily El Confidencial reported that Huerta, an award-winning author and television celebrity, evaded 218,322 euros ($256,462) in tax between 2006-2008 by using a shell company.

A court last year ordered that he pay over 360,000 euros to the tax office — the amount he tried to evade plus fines and interest payments, it added.

“I am stepping down,” Huerta told a news conference a week after he was sworn in on June 7, adding that the fine stemmed from a change in criteria used by the tax authority.

According to Spanish media, Huerta’s term in office is the shortest of any minister in Spain’s modern history.

“The first time to the tax office…and I am paying it for the second time here, conscious that innocence is not worth anything before this pack of hounds,” Huerta added in a reference to a firestorm sparked by the fraud report.

He said he was fully up to date with his tax payments and stressed he had decided to resign “autonomously”.

The leader of anti-establishment party Podemos, which backed the Socialist party’s no-confidence vote in parliament, had called for Huerta’s resignation.

“We will not back behaviours which remind us of the PP,” Pablo Iglesias told journalists earlier Wednesday.

“If Maxim Huerta tried to defraud the tax office, he should resign immediately, and if not, Pedro Sanchez should dismiss him.”

In a Twitter message after the resignation, Iglesias said the prime minister had initially backed Huerta but “Spain is no longer what it was”.

“As we said this morning, citizens no longer tolerate these things. I commend the government for hearing and rectifying,” he added.

The PP also demanded Huerta’s resignation while centrist party Ciudadanos called on him to explain himself to lawmakers.

Huerta will be replaced by Jose Guirao, who headed Madrid’s Reina Sofia modern art museum between 1994 and 2001, the government said.

During a TV interview in 2015, Sanchez, who was then head of the opposition Socialists, said that if he learned that a top party official used a company to pay less taxes, he would fire them.

Huerta had already sparked controversy when he was appointed a minister after media uncovered a Twitter message from 2010 where he said he “hated” sports.

He adjusted his views, saying, “I am not athletic, I say this because of everything that has emerged.

“That doesn’t mean anything. I will support and love sports and support all athletes because they are heroes and heroines,” he added.

Huerta was one of just six men in Sanchez’s government, among 11 women, the most of any administration in modern Spanish history.

He is well known in Spain having spent years as a presenter on popular morning television show “El Programa de Ana Rosa”, which mixes celebrity gossip with politics and social issues.</s>Maxim Huerta was appointed to Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's cabinet last week. He says he is "absolutely innocent" and fully up to date with his tax payments.

Speaking at a news conference in Madrid Herta said: "I have paid the fine twice, at the time and now, here," adding the penalty was not illegal at the time.

El Confidencial newspaper reported that Huerta had been found to have avoided paying tax amounting to over €218,000 between 2006-2008,

In a tweet, Maxim Huerta said: "To defend what you love most, sometimes, it is necessary to withdraw."

Huerta's resignation comes just weeks after former prime minister Mariano Rajoy was ousted from his position in a confidence vote over a long-running corruption scandal that tainted the conservative Popular Party,

Huerta said he was stepping down to protect the new Socialist government of Prime Minister Perdo Sanchez from criticism.

For the first time in Spain's history, Sanchez has appointed more women than men in ministerial posts.

Opinion polls show his PSOE party has rebounded since taking power, overtaking rivals such as Ciudadanos and Podemos, which had poached its voters in recent years.

But it will be difficult for Sanchez to make any major policy changes, as he controls less than a quarter of the seats in parliament.</s>Spain's minister of culture says he's resigning after just under a week in office over media revelations that he was fined for evading thousands of euros (dollars) in taxes.

Maxim Huerta, a former television presenter and writer, said during a news conference on Wednesday that he did nothing illegal and was stepping down to shield the new government of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez from criticism.

Huerta was sworn in as Culture and Sports Minister last Thursday, days after Sanchez ousted the previous prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, based on graft scandals tainting Rajoy's conservative Popular Party.

Sanchez, a socialist who promised to root out corruption from the country's institutions, had been under pressure Wednesday to sack Huerta after Spanish news website El Confidencial reported that the minister had been fined for failing to declare over 218,000 euros ($257,000.)</s>MADRID — Spain’s minister of culture resigned Wednesday after just under a week in office after news reports revealed he was fined a decade ago for evading thousands of euros (dollars) in taxes.

Maxim Huerta, a former television presenter and writer, said he did nothing illegal, but chose to step down to shield the new government of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez from criticism.

Huerta was sworn in as culture and sports minister last Thursday, days after Sanchez ousted the previous prime minister, Mariano Rajoy.

Sanchez, a socialist, based his bid to supplant Rajoy on the numerous graft scandals tainting the then-prime minister’s conservative Popular Party.

After winning passage in Parliament of a no-confidence motion against Rajoy’s government, Sanchez promised to root out corruption from Spain’s institutions. His pledge boomeranged Wednesday when news website El Confidencial published a court ruling that fined Huerta for failing to declare over 218,000 euros ($257,000) between 2006 and 2008.

Appearing before reporters after meeting with Sanchez, Huerta said the fine resulted from a lawsuit he filed against taxation authorities for changing rules.

But the choice to resign, he added, was intended to show the transparency of the new administration.

“We live in a society drowned out by noise, insults and misinformation,” Huerta said, describing the tax revelations as an attempt to “undermine the regeneration project” of Sanchez.

“I’m not going to allow that, because these are new times and the innocents prefer to leave and not to splash those who want clean politics,” he added.</s>Spanish Culture and Sports Minister Maxim Huerta resigned on Wednesday, just a week after taking over the portfolio, when it became known that he defrauded the treasury for 218,000 euros (about $257,000) in taxes and subsequently had to pay back 366,000 euros.

"I'm leaving because I love Culture," said Huerta, who asserted his innocence before reporters and said that he had been the victim of "a pack of dogs," referring to the criticism he had received over the matter.</s>MADRID: Spain's Culture Minister Maxim Huerta resigned on Wednesday from a week-old government, following local media reports he avoided taxes while he was working as a TV journalist a decade ago.

Huerta, who was named to the cabinet by Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez last week, told a news conference in Madrid he was "absolutely innocent" and had paid a fine to the tax ministry related to the period 2006-2008 after a change in their criteria.</s>The Two Monicas And The American Culture War
Spanish Minister of Culture and Sport Màxim Huerta resigns after tax issues, becoming the minister with the shortest time in office in Spain.