The Spanish Foreign Minister has been implicated in a corruption scandal which could cost him his job and has soured government relations with the opposition.
Mr Josep Pique is accused of involvement in the fraudulent sale of a petroleum company before he became a minister. This is the first major corruption case to hit the centre-right Partido Popular (PP) government which came to power in 1996 largely due to reaction against the rampant corruption which marked the latter years of Mr Felipe Gonzalez's Socialist Party (PSOE) administrations.
Mr Pique is one of the most respected members of the cabinet of the Prime Minister, Mr Jose Maria Aznar. A Catalan politician who was deeply involved in left-wing politics in his youth before joining the PP, he took over foreign affairs two years ago.
He has repeatedly denied the allegations against him, but Mr Bartolome Vargas, the prosecutor investigating the Ercros case, has described the situation as "suspicious". The Supreme Court agreed last week by 10 votes to two that Mr Pique should be called to testify as an alleged "necessary collaborator" in the crimes of tax fraud and misappropriation of company funds.
When he became prime minister, Mr Aznar repeated many times that any member of his government involved in any form of corruption would be immediately sacked from his post.
But when the Socialist leader, Mr Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, demanded a parliamentary investigation into the case and Mr Pique's head, Mr Aznar refused to consider removing his foreign minister, saying that an internal PP investigation had found Mr Pique was "innocent".
Instead, he offered the opposition a full debate on corruption "with all its consequences" including that which took place under the socialists.
The prospect of reopening the many wounds of that bitter period in Spanish politics is one the Socialists do not relish, but they are unlikely to let Mr Pique - or Mr Aznar - off the hook.